Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Larrabee State Park

Friday, December 31, 2010

Larrabee State Park

Samish Bay Larabee State Park October 2010

Polystichum munitum on Chuckanut Mountain at Larabee State Park October 2010

Thuja plicata on Chuckanut Mountain at Larabee State Park October 2010

Fragrance Lake at Larabee State Park October 2010

On a sunny Saturday in October I hiked the Fragrance Lake Trail in the Chuckanut Mountains at Larrabee State Park near Bellingham, Washington. Larrabee State Park lies on the shore of Samish Bay, a part of the Salish Sea north of Puget Sound. There are views of the San Juan Islands from the park. The Chuckanut Mountains drop down to the edge of the bay. Chuckanut Drive is a narrow road carved into the side of the mountains. Larrabee State Park extends from the bay well up into the mountains. The Fragrance Lake Trail is 1 of the most-used trails in the state. The trail follows switchbacks & more gentle slopes through moist native forest for 2 miles to Fragrance Lake. There is a 1-mile loop trail around the lake. I found the hike tiring, but not terribly strenuous. The forest is dense with Thuja plicata (Western Red Cedar) & Pseudostuga menziesii (Douglas Fir). The understory is mostly limited to Polystichum munitum (Western Sword Fern) & the occasional Vaccinium parvifolium (Red Huckleberry). The flora is much more varied around Fragrance Lake, which is quite beautiful & well worth the hike up the mountain. This hike took about 3 hours.

3 comments:

Rohrerbot said...: This looks like an incredible place to visit. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!; December 31, 2010 at 8:32 PM
Alistair said...: Wow your blogging skills well and truly match your gardening ability's.Thanks for the interesting information on Sorbus. As you say Aucuparia is a problem weed where you live. Here in Scotland with the climate as it is we tend to embrace all that survives. Thanks for your visits to aberdeengardening; January 3, 2011 at 4:00 AM
Patty said...: Looks like a lovely place to hike. Thanks for following my blog. -Patty; January 3, 2011 at 1:49 PM

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.