Rewards of the Journey - a photo on Flickriver

            Western Columbine, Wild Sky Wilderness, Washington

Some hikes roll smoothly along to their intended grand destination, and others serve as a gentle reminder that beauty can be still be found when things don't go according to plan. Yesterday's hike was one of the latter :-) 

With an intended destination of a lovely waterfall plunging into an even lovelier pool below, I set out on a damp and drizzly morning for the Quartz Creek trail in the Wild Sky Wilderness (a wilderness area I have wanted to hike just because the name!) Progress toward the trailhead came to an abrupt halt however, at a large washout on the forest road that would have required a serious off-roading vehicle to pass. It was early enough in that day that I could convince myself adding five miles of forest road hiking to make an 11 mile roundtrip instead of six, would be perfectly fine (!!), since the extra five miles would probably go pretty quickly. 

So I laced up my boots and headed up the road, which turned out to be a wonderful (uphill) walk along the beautiful Skykomish River as it noisily roared and plunged through rocks and off towering cliffs. There were many wildflowers along the way, including my first Columbine sightings of the year, some purple penstemon clinging to a rocky cliff, and several patches of bleeding hearts in a shade of deep purple I had not seen before.  It was also wonderfully quiet since there were no vehicles beyond the washout and very few other hikers. 

I finally reached the actual trailhead and after a short detour down a different trail to take some photos from a bridge that crosses the river at a dramatic viewpoint, I was on my way to my original destination. Or so I thought! As I made made my way up the first part of the trail I noticed an occasional patch of snow off to the side, which was not too alarming or unusual as those often linger in shaded areas well into summer and recent trail reports from nearby hikes had put the snow level at least 1000-1500 feet above the elevation I was hiking. But then those seemingly innocuous patches started to become more frequent until suddenly the entire trail was covered in knee deep snow!

At that point for the sake of safety I decided to turn around given the snow conditions, steep slope of the hillside, number of fallen trees along the trail that required maneuvering over and around, and being on a trail I was unfamiliar with. So I headed back down the trail and road, and hiking in the reverse direction was treated to intermittent views of the Central Cascade peaks as they emerged from the clouds and fog, only to disappear again minutes later. 

Someday I will return to hike to that waterfall, but on a day when little went as planned, it was still a hike filled with beautiful sights and sounds of nature, and for that I am very grateful.

Taken in: United States / Washington / Monte Cristo (show map)

Taken on: June 1, 2024

Tags:

Western Columbine

aquilegia formosa

Wild Sky Wilderness

Pacific Northwest

Washington

hiking

Spring

nature « less

Sets appears in: • 2024 Hikes • Macro Flowers

Groups appears in: • Pacific Northwest Outdoors • Pacific Northwest more » • Washington State Outdoors - NO HAND OF MAN! • Art of Nature • Flower Flower Flower • Flickr Social • Flickrology • all the little details « less

Camera: Canon PowerShot SX740 HS, f/5.0, 1/60 sec, 22mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot SX740 HS
Lens:	4.3-172.0 mm
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	22mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Show full info

Stats: 2,151 views / 37 comments