I've wanted to visit Price Lake since making the Nooksack Cirque a regular repeat trip. Interest was further stoked after an overnight with the kiddos and spotting smoke from a forest fire back in 2017 - post
Nice replacement bridge
Knee high river crossing
3 miles of easy old-road walk gets you to the Nooksack river crossing. There is a bit of brush bash but the climbers trail is soon found and although it's flagged I found it easy to find/follow.
2017 fire
More fire
Forest trail converts to boulders near the lake
~1 mile and 1500 feet of gain gets you your first views. The trail continues up along a rib of moraine. The hike is easy enough at this point but I was surprised how high above the lake you go, ~500 feet.
Shuksan and Price
Lichen
Nooksack Tower, Shuksan, Price
Nooksack Tower, Shuksan
We opted to drop the elevation and have lunch on the shore. Picking your way down the chunky, occasionally loose rocks was non-trivial and tiring but in the end worth it.
Pano
Ice Cave
Upper lake
Ice Cave
Flowers
Price Lake
Campsite with a view
After some exploring we decided to pick our way back to the outlet via the shore and were met with a steady stream of slide alder, willow and chunky rock to navigate. We stumbled upon a memorial stone for two climbers who died in 1983 - Peter Travis and John Nelson.
Memorial
Price Pano
Yellow Aster Butte and Tomyhoi
Last Look
Happy to be back on the trail we popped down quickly. Sore knees/feet enjoyed the cold river crossing and the flat 3 miles back to the parking area was a welcomed section. Beers at Chair 9 were icing on the day!
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
Must have been really cool to be standing there. Look at the size of that boulder way up on top of the ice. I imagine you were using a telephoto lens. You have some terrific photos.
How do you judge how close you can get to that thing? Maybe a ratio of height to distance? ~z
You can see hundreds of reasons floating in the water as to why this would be a terrible idea, but I’m oddly drawn to the thought of taking an inflatable raft into that ice cave…
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