The first part of the trail is just an ideal stroll.
Damp drizzly day, but few other hikers for a Saturday.
The ancient forest at the head of Baker Lake is as spectacular as any in the Olympics. So why isn't it in the National Park?
These old cedars are really giants. These huge old behemoths only live at low elevations and it's miraculous that these weren't logged long ago. What's to keep them from being logged now? NOT MUCH -- until they're added to North Cascades National Park!
That "glacial flour" green. Baker River is a classic braided glacial meltwater river, with multiple channels through gravels, changing with the yearly flood cycles. The beautiful green is the same green in Diablo Lake - it marks glacial meltwater.
Bleeding heart
An old bridge bit the silt some years ago.
Like being in a live Japanese painting.
Old tree trunks litter the rivebed, providing great fish spawning spots.
Mountain Dwarf Dogwood
Drip...
...drip...
Beaver ponds a couple of miles up the trail.
More damp dogwood
Tons of silty gravel bars in this typical "braided outwash" river.
Sturdy bridges on the Baker Lake Trail, this one branches off above the head of the lake and heads back down the east, wild, shore.
Hidden Creek comes crashing down out of the Noisy-Diobsud Wilderness.
Just kind of sums things up.
