Sauk Mountain Flora and Vistas

Koma Kulshan Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society Field Trip

After pre-registering with Fritz Ulrich (fritz365@gmail.com), meet at 8:00 AM at the I-5 Park & Ride in Fairhaven on the WEST side of the freeway or at the Sauk Mountain trailhead at 9:45 AM. Let’s identify wildflowers together! The trail begins and ends in high mountain meadows offering wildflowers and spectacular vistas the entire length. We will hike through 26 gentle switchbacks in the first 1.5 miles in steep terrain and if we go all the way up to the site that once hosted a fire lookout at 5,500 ft elevation, removed by the Forest Service in the 1980s, it will be about 2.1 miles. There we (hopefully) can enjoy a 360-degree panorama of the North Cascades, where on a clear day you can see Mt. Rainier to the south, Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands to the west and the rugged Cascade peaks stretching to the east including Glacier Peak and Mount Baker. We expect an outstanding show of wildflowers that includes paintbrush, phlox, tiger lilies, aster, columbine, lupine, and many others. This trail (roundtrip 4.2 miles and 1,200 feet elevation change) is very popular and the reason for the weekday trip. We still may have to yield to lots of hikers during our botanizing and have to be careful in the steep and narrow sections of the trail. There is a decommissioned toilet at the trailhead or otherwise the woods will do (blue bags are required). The trail is south-facing, sunscreen and hiking poles are advisable.

Trip limit: 10 people, preregistration with field trip leader required.