Park Butte Lookout

 We were influenced by the weather report for yesterday's hike. Out of the week this seemed the best day for some periods of sun in the area of our destination, so off we went for the long drive to the Schriebers meadow trailhead parking lot. I've only done this hike with our family in Sept. of 2014 and on a backpacking trip in 2019. Yesterday we drove up into clouds as we did for our Scott Paul hike in August. We began our hike at 11 am. My Garmin seems to give us more mileage than their signs state. I always take the longer distance as my total!

On our Scott Paul hike in August we turned right at this trail junction, but today we stayed left.

The skies weren't too dark at our start, I was hopeful for some views.

After the meadow creek crossing.

At the Railroad grade junction we stayed left and continued our uphill climb into the clouds.

We found a nice log to sit on for our lunch break and Scoutina found some prime sticks for chewing on.

There was a breeze that kept blowing the clouds around and after lunch I put on a hat and gloves, it was getting pretty chilly. 

Our view as we headed into the first water pond area just below Cathedral camp.

The trail junction for Mazama camp. Cathedral camp and Park Butte Lookout. We stayed left all others turned right.

Heading into the rocky ascent area.

The tarns were barely visible with the low clouds.

I hiked ahead of my husband for a bit and turned around and saw him faintly in the distance.

The entering Wilderness area sign visible on a tree. The next section of the trail was fairly steep but not for too long.

I was hoping it wouldn't be too cloudy to see when we were at the Lookout and it was nice to see that it was visible. We had decided that the drop off on the rock wasn't a good place to let Scoutina try out her climbing skills, so I went on ahead while they waited below. I climbed up the rock area alongside the tree branch that is fixed to the rocks.

Photo to show I made it and to show the "no view"

You can see what the view can be, in this photo taken on 2014 while on our family hike.

Another view from the lookout taken yesterday.

A look at my husband and Scoutina waiting for me below.

Time to go down the short section of steps and rocks.

Working our way down the trail from the Lookout.

We had some hope that we could possibly get some views as the clouds moved around. We did get some small peeks here and there. We thought we saw a Mt. Goat in the rockfall area to the left of the lake below, but the clouds moved in before we could confirm it.

Scoutina enjoying the small views.

Back to walking in the clouds.

We heard the shrill whistle of a Marmot and my husband spotted it. I was able to get a zoomed in photo of it. We heard several Pika but never saw one.

This would have been our view of Mt. Baker had it been clear.

A mirage like view of a hill in the distance.

The lower we got of course the clearer the sky and the warmer the temperature.

The creek below had barely any depth when we crossed it earlier, there was no need to rock hop & my shoes didn’t wet, but when we came back it had risen to ankle height on Scoutina. My shoes got wet this time, but mostly because I just walked right through.

Lots of mushrooms along the trail. Here was a patch of poisonous Amanita mushrooms.

I love the last section with it's meadow walk.

I enjoyed the views, the colors and the Blueberries.

A couple of heart rocks I saw on the trail.

We didn’t get the views we had hope for but it was a fun adventure, I’m glad we reached our destination.

Trail rating: Moderate hard

Total miles hiked: 8.7

Total ascent: 2147

Watson Lakes hike

 After looking at the weather forecast for the week we decided Monday (yesterday) would be our clearest weather view day for a hike to Watson lakes. Since we'd be heading south of our area we took a chance to invite our daughter to hike along with us. Our selected meeting place would be about the same driving time for each of us, so a perfect rendezvous hike. It was quite cloudy when we met up and we debated changing our hike destination, but the forecast showed that it should clear a bit through the day so we chose to trust the forecast and set off together in our truck. We saw a herd of Elk as we made our way to the Baker lake road.

After crossing the Dam we began our off pavement drive to the trailhead. We drove about 10 miles up. The road seemed to be in pretty good shape at the start with the normal potholes we have on these high use trailhead roads, but it deteriorated quite a bit as we neared the top. As the grade increased so did the ruts. 

I've hiked this trail 2 other times: once with the Trailblazers, you can read about that 2015 hike HERE.

A photo from that day's hike

the second time here was on a backpacking trip, you can read about that 2016 trip HERE.

Apparently my Spartan training never ended in those days. The photo below shows me getting in my 100 pushups at camp.

Anyway back to today's journey.

Trailhead and trail sign-in photos.

After going up for a bit we came to our first bridge crossing.

Our first signs that the season is changing.

There was plenty of water along the trail for Scoutina. There were a few very low water crossings before the lakes.

Our first views of Watson Lakes.

The shore of the first Watson lake.

A small brown frog spied by my husband.

Heart rock on the trail

We stopped at this campsite for our lunch. 

Scoutina found just the perfect stick to chew on.

Our lunch view of the second Watson lake. 

Do you see the face in the rock across the lake? I spotted this when we were on our backpacking trip. I tried to find it in person yesterday but couldn't find it. Then as I was going through the photos of the day this morning I noticed it! Don't know why I couldn't find it yesterday. In case you don't see it I put and arrow pointing to it in the second lake photo below.

There were many blueberries ripe on the bushes around the lake. The plants were just beginning to show their fall colors.

I spent some time wandering around during our lunch break just enjoying the area once again.

We packed up our packs and began our journey out. One last view of the lake as we made our way up the hill.

We could see the boardwalk trail down below us.

Some of the steps in the boardwalk trail.

My daughter and I were laughing at this spot, because I had told her when I invited her that this was a fairly flat hike. She said that it was because you only remember the boardwalk sections. I guess she's right, I do have an overly nostalgic memory about my favorite parts of trails. In the photo below she was also trying to show me how her Android phone will take a countdown photo just by using a palm gesture. When she raises her hand to a certain location behind her for a selfie a countdown shows on her phone, giving her enough time to lower her hand before the shutter clicks. My iphone doesn't do this. Yes I'm jealous.

I was happy that the anticipated view of Mt. Baker was there on our return.

As we drove down the road my husband stopped at one of the corners for us to enjoy another view of Mt. Baker.

As we were heading towards Sedro Woolley I spied a Sundog in the sky. So many colors in a cloud, like a rainbow but without the bow.

We didn't start hiking until about 12:30, but I think that was good because it gave the clouds a chance to clear more for our views. Glad we checked to see if our daughter could join us. It was a good time together. Oops sorry about the elevation gain on our promised "fairly flat' hike.

Trail rating: Moderate

Total miles: 5.6

Total ascent: 1561 feet