Edges
Bluff Lake, Goat Rocks Wilderness, Washington
In my quest to avoid the huge summer crowds that have overrun many of the popular hiking destinations in Washington, I ventured out to a rarely visited area of the beautiful Goat Rocks Wilderness to check out the trail to Bluff Lake. So named because unlike many alpine lakes, it does not sit down in a basin or cirque, instead it perches on the edge of a cliff. (Not far beyond those trees at the far end of the lake is a 1500 foot drop off!)
Much of this trail is in the process of being restored after it was destroyed in a wildfire a few years ago. The section up to the lake was largely untouched by the fire, although you can see some burned trees in the photo as this was the edge of the burn zone. Beyond the lake however, the forest was completely devastated. Dead trees and burn snags created an eerie "ghost forest", with not a living tree in sight, and the trail surface felt like hiking through sand, but was actually a thick layer of ash.
Fortunately some patches of brightly blooming fireweed, and an abundance of alpine strawberry plants sprawling over what used to be the forest floor spoke to the renewal that nature already has underway - and added a somewhat incongruously cheerful note to the otherwise apocalyptic scene.
The main reward of this hike though, other than the lovely lake, was the quiet and solitude. After miles of driving on a maze of forest roads, the first thing I noticed at the trailhead was how absolutely quiet it was. And other than a small group of backpackers hiking out on my way in, and one other hiker leaving the lake as I was arriving, I encountered no other people on the trail.
Edges
Bluff Lake, Goat Rocks Wilderness, Washington
In my quest to avoid the huge summer crowds that have overrun many of the popular hiking destinations in Washington, I ventured out to a rarely visited area of the beautiful Goat Rocks Wilderness to check out the trail to Bluff Lake. So named because unlike many alpine lakes, it does not sit down in a basin or cirque, instead it perches on the edge of a cliff. (Not far beyond those trees at the far end of the lake is a 1500 foot drop off!)
Much of this trail is in the process of being restored after it was destroyed in a wildfire a few years ago. The section up to the lake was largely untouched by the fire, although you can see some burned trees in the photo as this was the edge of the burn zone. Beyond the lake however, the forest was completely devastated. Dead trees and burn snags created an eerie "ghost forest", with not a living tree in sight, and the trail surface felt like hiking through sand, but was actually a thick layer of ash.
Fortunately some patches of brightly blooming fireweed, and an abundance of alpine strawberry plants sprawling over what used to be the forest floor spoke to the renewal that nature already has underway - and added a somewhat incongruously cheerful note to the otherwise apocalyptic scene.
The main reward of this hike though, other than the lovely lake, was the quiet and solitude. After miles of driving on a maze of forest roads, the first thing I noticed at the trailhead was how absolutely quiet it was. And other than a small group of backpackers hiking out on my way in, and one other hiker leaving the lake as I was arriving, I encountered no other people on the trail.