Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Lake 22 Trail

Friday, November 22, 2013

Lake 22 Trail

Rubus parviflorus (Thimbleberry) Lake 22 Trail June 2012

Aruncus dioicus (Goat's Beard) Lake 22 Trail June 2012

Lake 22 June 2012

Veratrum viride (Corn Lily) Lake 22 Trail June 2012

Lake 22 June 2012

Click here for more photos of the Lake 22 Trail.

The Lake 22 Trail is a fairly easy & spectacular hike in the Cascade Mountains in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Snohomish County, Washington. It is also a popular hike, with many people on the trail on summer weekends. The trail head is on the Mountain Loop Highway, 13 miles east of Granite Falls. The hike is mostly through lush, old growth forest, although some time is spent crossing a large, open talus slope with lovely views of nearby mountains. The volume & diversity of the flora is truly amazing. The trail starts at elevation 1,050 feet & ends at elevation 2,400 feet (731 meters) in the beautiful basin that contains Lake 22. If you have any breath left at the top of the trail, your 1st view of the lake will take it away. The hike is 5.4 miles round trip.

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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.