Right: Fireweed on Green Mountain, with Glacier Peak beyond.

This page describes hikes and views accessible from the Mountain Loop Highway and State Route 530, near Granite Falls, Arlington & Darrington, Washington.
     Geography & Climate: Washington's latitude lies in a transitional belt between sub-Arctic northern forests and warmer drier regions. Moist temperate air masses sweep onto the west coast and hit the spectacular Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, dumping heavy rain on the southwestward (windward) slopes, creating dense temperate rainforest at low elevations and significant glaciers in the Glacier Peak Region, which you can visit via the Mountain Loop Highway, accessible via Everett, Lake Stevens, Arlington, or Darrington.

Glacier Peak

Mt. Pilchuck

Green Mountain

 
Above: This panorama from Green Mountain includes a forest fire above Downey Creek, Dome Peak, Glacier Peak, and Mount Pugh. Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. (Scroll window right to see wide panorama stitched from 15 images).


Above: This panorama from Green Mountain includes Sloan Peak on the left, and White Chuck Mountain on the right (stitched from 5 images).

Gothic Basin

Above: Del Campo Peak, above Foggy Lake, in Gothic Basin, Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. Gothic Basin is a day hike of 10 miles with 3300 feet gain along a mostly steep and rough trail, from Barlow Pass on the Mountain Loop Highway, Washington. (I stitched this panorama from 3 images.)

Left: Sheep Gap Mountain, on the hike to Gothic Basin, Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, accessible from the Mountain Loop Highway.

Below: Foggy Lake, Gothic Basin.


Above: Silvertip Peak, located in a historic mining area, seen on the hike to Gothic Basin, Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, accessible from the Mountain Loop Highway.

Left: Lake Twenty-Two in Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest.

Below right: mossy tree branches, on the trail to Lake Twenty-Two in Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest.

Below: Water drops on a skunk cabbage leaf reflect the forest.


Left: Daisies on Mount Dickerman. July 20, 2005.

Below right: False Lily-of-the-Valley, Maianthemum (Lily Family), on hike to "Lake 22", Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington.

Left: Columbine flower (genus=Aquilegia; Buttercup family=Ranunculaceae) on Mount Dickerman, Mountain Loop Highway, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
Above: A hoverfly explores a daisy, on Mount Dickerman, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. Hoverflies are expert hoverers, and they mimic the appearance of wasps & bees as a defense. Syrphid, flower, or hover flies are in the Family: Syrphidae, of which there are 1000 species in North America (in the Order: Diptera, Class: Insecta, Phylum: Arthropoda). Hoverfly larvae commonly eat aphids and other small, soft-bodied insects. Adult hoverflies feed on pollen, nectar, and honeydew, and are true flies with only two wings instead of four which most insects have (such as bees & wasps).

Left: Swallowtail Butterfly on Mount Dickerman.

Below: Cutthroat Lakes in Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, on the Walt Bailey Trail on the way to Bald Mountain, accessible from the Mountain Loop Highway, Washington.

Recommended hiking guidebooks: The "100 Hikes" series published by The Mountaineers, Seattle.