Capturing the Art of Nature
A day in the Silver-Skagit Valley
This area has incredible mountain vistas to photograph along with lakes, rivers and many side branches. It is also easy to access so I was looking forward to a return visit and hopefully to find an old cabin and visit Ross Lake at the far end of the valle
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2012
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It was eleven years ago that Geoff, Ethan and I were driving through the valley and exploring some of the easier side–roads. At the end of one of these was an old cabin that was hidden in the trees along the side of a creek bed. Though we had tried a few times to find it since that trip, we hadn’t found it. Today we planned to put more effort into locating it. In looking over my old photo of the cabin I noticed a couple of mountain scenes taken at the same time. So I figured they were taken close to the cabin and if I could position Google Earth just right I would discover the spot they were taken. So a few days before the trip I spent some time on my computer and eventually pin-pointed the spot where the mountains on Google Earth looked similar to those on the old photos. Armed with a starting point we set off for the valley.
Upon arrival we soon learned two things – the first was that the road was recently graded and was very smooth and easy driving – all the way to Ross Lake. The second was that the easy road brought out a lot of campers and with the dry road the dust kicked up by driving was massive! Our first stop upon entering the valley was just before Silver Lake where we had a nice view into the lake and the river just below it. I have taken numerous photos form here but the spot always draws me back. We were able to clamber onto a huge rock in the middle of the river where we took some amazing water photos. Unfortunately, we had to wait for long gaps between vehicles on the road as the dust they kicked up blew across the river and lake obscuring the scene!
As we continued our way south along the valley, everywhere we found a wide spot or side road there were groups of campers milling about. They seemed to be eking out a camping experience in every nook-and-cranny that could be found! Quite funny in a way as those alongside the road were getting covered in a thick layer of dust with each passing car! With the road in such good shape we were very quickly approaching the location where our side road to the cabin should be and we needed to keep an eye out for it. Soon we found an old over-grown road leading off to the SE from the mainline. The trees were crowding the road and a deep cross-ditch made the entrance to the road a bit questionable. As it was only a half kilometer to the end of it we opted to just park and hike in to the end of the spur and look for the cabin. We easily reached the end of the road now much over-grown and covered in the intervening 11 years. We started up the creek bed and crossed over to the far side. After climbing through the bush along the side of the creek Geoff yells out that he found the spot! Unfortunately, the old cabin had been destroyed. All we found were some of the ‘appliances’ – bathtub, stove, wood-burning heater. It was a real shame but at-least we can now claim to have finally found it.
Done with the remains of the cabin we returned to the truck and made for Ross Lake at the end of the valley. It being the May long-week-end I figured that the park would now be open and we would be able to get all the way to the lake. Well I was partially correct. The gate was open and we did get all the way to where the lake should be. But the level was way down and there was no lake to find. It seems that the start of it was far to the south of where the border is and we decided to just wander around the lake bed for a bit and gather a few photos along the border. The number of groups crowding the open spaces was no longer surprising but the numbers were significant. On our way out – we decided to eat lunch outside of the park – we spotted a small car parked with a group, we had passed it on our way in while it was getting outfitted with a spare tire! They have a long drive back on a small tire!
Once we got out of the park we started looking for a spot to set up the radio and eat lunch, we had thought about the granite quarry but people were camping in the middle of roads making it impossible to get past them! That was perhaps the most annoying part of the crowds. We didn’t find the quarry but did finally find a side road with no current occupant. I had hoped for a more open elevated spot but those were all occupied. So we made do with this tree enclosed location. The tall trees lining the road side actually proved useful as we were able to toss a rope over a lower branch and haul up the antenna and get on the air in record time. The spot worked out really well and I was able to have a good chat with the team back in White Rock. I also chatted with a station in Colorado. After we finished lunch and Geoff had shot at numerous targets, a pair of guys in a ATV came up the road looking for areas to explore. The driver turned out to be a guy Geoff went to school with!
Done with lunch and radio, we packed up and started to explore some more side roads as we made our way north. Some of them were blocked by campers but we did get to drive up the first side branch of the Cantelon FSR. We gained some good elevation and had some lovely view s before we were stopped by snow. Then it was back down to the main Silver-Skagit road and we drove north.A bit north of Silver Lake we took the fork that leads to the campsite on the west side of the lake and the Sowerby FSR. Choosing the Sowerby over the lake we made our way up that valley. We soon came to an extremely rough patch of road which should keep all but the most determined out of the valley. Shortly passed the rough section we stopped to observe a huge rock which had slid down from its original spot by about 2 meters. This rock was likely 20 meters tall and had moved a good 6 feet! At some point it will slide across the road or tip over and totally block it. I sure hope it isn’t today with us on the wrong side.
After looking over the big rock and getting up on top of it, we continued up the road and enjoyed some amazing views of the valley. We didn’t get all that far in as a pair of guys were busy sawing trees and clearing the road. They said the snow was deep just a few hundred meters beyond them, so we opted to call it a day and turned back and set off for home. It was a great day of driving even with the clouds of dust and the annoying city campers blocking some of the roads.