Snow Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park

Snow lake, the southern end.

Alpine lakes are one of my favorite destinations in the mountain wildernesses of the Pacific states. At higher altitudes the water almost invariably reflects beautiful hues of blue, turquoise, yellow or some other color. The lake margins are usually lined with small wetlands or edge up against beautiful coniferous forests with tall spires of stately trees. Dragonflies and damselflies might dart to and fro while water striders balance on the surface tension of the water. In winter and spring ice blankets the lakes while they quietly sleep through the cold months.

After an evening hike to Comet Falls and a night of camping on the slopes of Mt. Rainier, the next day we set out to see a few other regions of the park. We stopped to see the meadows of lilies (and unexpectedly, the marmots!) at Paradise midday and then drove farther east into the park for a relatively short hike up to Snow Lake. Snow Lake is tucked into a basin at the base of a semi-circular rocky ridge that is part of the Tatoosh Range. The lake is sort of sickle-shaped. After a short jaunt beyond the end of the official trail, one reaches the southern end of the lake where brick orange soils stand out distinctly on the lake bottom.

Map of Mt. Rainier National Park at left (from NPS, 2015), and inset at right with
Snow Lake (from USGS, 1971).

Mt. Rainier from the Snow Lake trail as the sky clears after an early
summer storm.

For the first 24 hours of our visit to the park, Mt. Rainier was shrouded in clouds since a storm that had overtaken the Pacific Northwest that weekend in early July was still lingering. However, the clear skies of summer were returning and on the return hike from Snow Lake back to the trailhead, the clouds shrouding the mountain began to clear and the beaming rugged glaciers of Rainier’s south slopes became visible.

Mt. Rainier is the highest of all the Cascade peaks in Washington, Oregon and California, topping Mt. Shasta by a few hundred feet. Its magnificent slopes culminate in snowfields and cracked glaciers. It is a remarkable beacon in central Washington and I hope to visit again soon to explore all the gems it has to offer: rivers, forests, lakes, waterfalls, and ice!

Reference

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR. 

Snow and ice on the southeastern slope of Mt. Rainier. 

White torches of blooming bear grass, Xerophyllum tenax
(Liliaceae).

White rhododendron (Rhododendron albiflorum) at left and avalanche lily
(Erythronium montanum) at right.

Comet Falls, Mt. Rainier National Park

Last week was my first visit to Mt. Rainier National Park in central Washington. The peak at the center of the park is the highest mountain in the Cascade Range, rising above 14,000 ft. The park boasts lush temperate rainforest and wide river washes fed by rain and glaciers crowning the mountain.

Vine maple, Acer circinatum, the foliage of which is just delightful in the fall.

Waterfalls dot the Rainier map and we headed towards Comet Falls on the southern slope of the mountain the afternoon we arrived at the park. A short distance from the trailhead, the trail passes over one of the tributaries of the Nisqually River that eventually runs into the Nisqually Delta near Olympia. The creek water rushed through a narrow channel of bedrock in a precipitous drop through a small valley making its way down the mountain. After crossing via foot bridge, the trail runs along the eastside of the creek up the slopes of Rainier. The water’s roar was a companion during the hike.

Flowers increased in number and variety gaining elevation up the trail. Among the most common were white six-petaled blooms of Clintonia uniflora, the flowers emerging not far above the ground next to a pair of smooth spatulate leaves (not unlike commercial orchids). Another frequent small ground cover species with white blooms was Cornus unalaschkensis (a small relative of the much larger tree, the dogwood). Yellow asters which I did not observe closely enough to attempt to identify were also common.

Blooms of Cornus unalaschkensis (left) and Clintonia uniflora (right), both common near Comet Falls.

Near Comet Falls there was a small population of the striking avalanche lily, Erythronium montanum, which I would later see in greater abundance in the higher elevation meadows at Paradise farther up the slopes Mt. Rainier. The flowers of this species hang down towards the ground, having six somewhat dishelved white petals that radiate out from a bright yellow center. Paradise also had many individuals of another species of fawn lily, E. grandiflorum (the Glacier lily), similar to the avalanche lily in habit, but with solid yellow flowers. E. montanum is distributed in the Pacific Northwest while E. grandiflorum occurs from British Columbia to California and into the Rocky Mountain west.

Avalanche lily.

Comet Falls.

There were a few Columbia tiger lilies along the trail too. Other booming species were numerous and included Maianthemum racemosum (large false Solomon's seal), Rubus parviflorus (thimbleberry), Rubus spectabilis (salmonberry), Rubus lasiococcus (dwarf bramble), Corallorhiza mertensiana (western coralroot), Phyllodoce empetriformis (pink mountain heather), Dodecatheon sp. (shooting star), and the striking red and yellow ornate flowers of Aquilegia formosa (columbine). The day was damp and cloudy, otherwise resembling conditions I would expect in late winter or fall, except that the presence of flowers and resplendent foliage reminded one that it was indeed summer.

Coralroot (Orchidaceae).

The rainforest at the base of Mt. Rainier is truly lush - one of the greenest forests I've been able to visit. As with most forests in the western Pacific Northwest's, massive conifers dominate the canopy. Cedars and firs were common in the park, and I also noted western hemlock, mountain hemlock, and Douglas fir. The new growth of needles on the tips of the conifer branches was everywhere, the bright green centimeters of vibrant new growth giving accent to the deeper evergreen of the older growth, such a pleasant sight! Lichens hung from the trees in abundance, giving the landscape a depth of age too.

After hiking to Comet Falls, we camped that evening among the beautiful conifers and had one more day to explore Mt. Rainier. The short trip did not give the extensive park due justice of course, but it was enough time to gain a taste for its beauty and to be enticed to return again.

References

Baldwin et al. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Higher Plants of California. 2^nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

New growth on a small fir tree.

Oregon caves

Valley leading up to Oregon Caves
National Monument.

The Oregon Caves National Monument lies in the Siskiyou range, a mountainous region in southwest Oregon rich in biodiversity.

Dozens of chambers and tunnels connect the caves in a complex underground maze discovered by Elijah Davidson in 1874 while in pursuit of his dog and a bear that had entered the cave. The caves became a popular attraction; today the National Park Service leads tours of a little over an hour through much of the cave complex.

"Drapery" formed by sheet flow of water though
the cave.

The caves formed over the course of thousands of years as weak carbonic acid slowly dissolved the marble rocks underlying the mountain. The acids formed from the interaction of water with carbon dioxide released from decaying plant matter in the soils overlying the bedrock. The caverns and tunnels vary in size and shape. A very small stream (named the “River Styx”) runs through a part of the cave complex.

Slow mineral deposition over time as water continues to move through the caves has resulted in a variety of interesting forms inside many of the rooms. Dripping water creates forms such as stalagmites and the thin “soda straws” that project from some of the cave ceilings. Flowing sheets of water over rock surfaces form other shapes such as “drapery”. Lights set up by the Park Service help illuminate many of the features for visitors. 

Other cave features: stalagmites, stalactites, and
columns (fused stalagmites + stalagtites).

Drapery is most ornate in the "Paradise Lost" room,
my favorite place along the tour route.

Other reference

National Park Service educational materials

Crescent City rocky intertidal

The northern-most significant stretch of rocky coastline in California borders the small sleepy town of Crescent City. Last week offered some excellent early morning low tides, so of course part of the Pacific Northwest vacation needed to be scheduled around a few coastal adventures.

Pebble Beach area, Crescent City, exposed at low tide.

The Crescent City coastline consists of a long stretch of boulders (small and large) punctuated with offshore rocks and seastacks. At low tide the intertidal life is rich, especially abundant with red seaweeds. One of the species occurring distinctively here is the small peltate red alga Constantinea simplex. It grows in the low intertidal, mushroom-shaped, along vertical rock faces.

Every visit to the intertidal reveals some treasures - often new species or observations. Some highlights from this low tide excursion:

- a bright orange sea cucumber, unknown species

- a low intertidal pool with a long orange nemerteam worm, some bashful large sculpins, and little orange cup corals (Ballanophyllia elegans)

- abundant Desmarestia munda

- yellow dorid nudibranchs and a few other species

The early morning tide was quite low and the wind and sea were calm - perfect conditions for exploring the low intertidal.

A gray-blue species of sculpin in a shaded shallow intertidal pool.

The orange cup coral, Balanophyllia elegans.

Dermasterias imbricata.

Unidentified sea cucumber.

Oregon redwoods

According to the fossil record, redwoods once occupied a large expanse of territory across North America. Today they are restricted to a narrow coastal band along the Pacific coast where year-round temperatures are mild.

The modern day range of Sequoia sempervirens stretches from Big Sur in Monterey County, California to just across the California-Oregon border. At the southern end of the range, the trees tend to be shorter, tucked away inside steep valleys cut into the Big Sur coastline. They may survive courtesy of tongues of fog that roll in from the cool Pacific into the coastal valleys, while finding the dryer warm hillsides too inhospitable. Towards the northern end of the range in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, the redwoods reach their most favorable conditions, at least as evidenced by the size of the trees. In Tall Trees Grove in Redwood National Park in northern California, for example, several contenders for the world's tallest tree thrive near Redwood Creek.

Though I have spent much time among the redwoods throughout much of their range, until this week I had never seen the northernmost trees in the southwest corner of Oregon. The occasion was the first leg of a Pacific Northwest vacation in northwestern California and southeast Oregon. After an early morning exploration of rocky tidepools in Crescent City, I thought it would be an opportune time to make a detour to find the redwoods before heading to Oregon Caves National Monument (hopefully more on these adventures in later posts).

After crossing into Oregon heading north on US101, one heads east to follow the course of the Winchuck River for a few miles and then turns off onto a narrow one-lane road that winds into the western reaches of the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest. About 2-2.5 miles into the road, the distinctive clusters of redwoods begin to appear among other conifers and at 4 miles the road ends and the Oregon redwood trail begins.

Redwood sorrel and wild ginger.

Maianthemum sp. 

The old growth forest hosts the typical consortium of understory species in Sequoia forests: carpets of redwood sorrel, tufts of sword ferns, and rhododendrons. I also observed huckleberry bushes, wild ginger, and a few orange tiger lilies.

Reference

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR.