Seattle Tours

Five days ago Jonah and I could not find Sunday Lake, yet we yearned to contemplate those still waters, and so made another trip up the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River. The lake is surrounded by some old growth that pokes out from the Alpine Lake Wilderness -- a peninsula of old forest surrounded by clearcuts. We walked through a bog, got lost a couple times, and then found the lake. We saw flowers: pacific bleeding heart, false lily-of-the-valley, salmonberry, thimbleberry, bunchberry, speedwell, red columbine, strawberry, wood violet, large-leaved avens, labrador tea, siberian miner's lettuce, tall bluebells, arnica and various saxifragaceous forbs, among others.

Pictures, in order: (1) Span bridge over the northfork, with old growth timbers; (2) Sunday Lake, elevation 1900 feet; (3) outlet of Sunday Lake into Sunday Creek; (4) Red columbine, Aquilegia formosa (Ranunculaceae)