Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Ashland Lakes Trail

Friday, March 28, 2014

Ashland Lakes Trail

Beaver Plant Lake, Ashland Lakes Trail August 2012

Spiraea douglasii (Hardhack) Ashland Lakes Trail August 2012

Lysichiton americanum (Skunk Cabbage) Ashland Lakes Trail August 2012

Upper Ashland Lake August 2012

Click here for more photos of the Ashland Lakes Trail.

The Ashland Lakes Trail is a very pleasant & fairly easy hike in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest on the Mountain Loop Highway in Snohomish County, Washington. The flora here is different from that on other hikes in the area, because it is very boggy. At least, I could see that it was very boggy at other times of the year. In August 2012, it was fairly dry. The boardwalks (then being repaired) that circled Upper Ashland Lake seemed pointless. I think I would rather have gone earlier in the summer when the water was more abundant. Nevertheless, Upper Ashland Lake was lovely & Beaver Plant Lake was more beautiful still. There was plenty of Spaghnum (Peat Moss) & Lysichiton americanum (Skunk Cabbage) both evidence of a swampy environment. The Mount Pilchuck Natural Resource Conservation Area is one of the wettest places in Washington, with between 100 and 180 inches of annual precipitation, about the same as the Hoh Rain Forest. The trail begins at 2,200 feet in elevation & climbs to 3,000 feet. It is 5.5 miles round trip.

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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.

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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.