Garden on the Skyline Divide Trail. More pictures below!
The day hike is a modern convention, dependent on the automobile and decent roads that allow us to leave our homes and return the same day, with a walk in between. If the trail is close, the roads are good, and the journey is easy enough for us to tackle, we can day hike and still have plans for the evening. We all complain sometimes: “I drove six hours to hike six hours”. By saying this, we forget that once, before modern cars or roads, we might have journeyed a week to our hiking destination and then had to stay while to make it worthwhile.
I prefer to camp outdoors over day hiking, making up a fraction of hikers. It’s not the drive vs. hiking time that drives this preference. In fact, I sleep better in a tent with natural sounds than in a bed where my thoughts may become too noisy for sleep. When life and work deny me sleep at home, I sometimes pitch a tent in the yard, which is beyond my neighbors’ worried eyes. I sometimes wonder how long it takes in the outdoors to replace dreams of being late for crucial meetings with dreams of raptors soaring on thermals.
But day hike we do, to get a break, to get some exercise, or to introduce our lovely natural areas to our friends, or visitors from afar.
Mt. Baker from Skyline Divide
In my case, I’m hiking this summer to get ready for a trip to the Canadian Arctic in late July and can’t always stay out overnight due to those obligations that haunt my dreams. Washington State offers lovely day hikes for all sorts, and they have magical moments along with grand views. Two hikes that held something new for me are Lake Valhalla and Skyline Divide. I have traveled to Lake Valhalla only in winter, when the avalanche conditions in Stevens Pass allow. Summer is a new experience for me on that trail. I have never been to Skyline Divide due to its reputation for crowds. I hiked both during the week and enjoyed limited crowds of really nice folks, young and not so much so, clearly dedicated to relaxation and peace.
Anise Swallowtail at Skyline Divide
Both trails sparkled with butterflies, though the historic heat this summer has wilted the most exposed flowers early in the season. I perched on the Skyline Divide ridge to catch a refreshing breeze coming up from the valley below while I ate lunch. From my perch, I watched swarms of butterflies over a still-fresh meadow, chasing each other in multi-colored tornadoes when too many occupied the same verdant space. At Lake Valhalla, I rested in the sand by the lake for lunch and watched many butterflies puddling, taking up mineral from the moist soils. Before I even left the trailhead, I saw my first Parnassian
Believe this is Clodius Parnassian
On both trails, I met a diversity of people that we never used to see 20 years ago outside of the national parks: all skin colors, all ages, all walks of life. Gone is the monotony of urgent looking white people ( the majority male) pounding down the trail in long johns with shorts over the top, bent on a destination. Not only the car, but the guidebook and the gear store have made hiking accessible to a variety of people who come for the day, but may help to protect our natural areas forever. This is not a bad thing- there will always be solitude to find, but unless a lot of people care about the outdoors, there will be no outdoors to celebrate. Viva the day hike!
For an amazing variety of hikes throughout Washington State, along with trip reports, visit Washington Trails Association at www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes.
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