Skip to main content

Driveway Butte, Mazama Washington


It's pretty obvious this is from way back, well as far back as the end of May. Memorial Day weekend to be exact. The morning I hiked this trail it was pretty overcast which made the flowers more intense but then there was no color in the sky till late afternoon. It was plenty warm and slightly muggy. The last time I hiked this trail I blistered up my heels really bad, which made for a very unpleasant hike. So this time I had my brook trail running shoes on and man they made a huge difference. Made this steep up hill hike seem easy, and very enjoyable. The trail takes off from the parking lot and you start climbing immediately. The flat sections of the switchbacks allows for time to breath before you attempt the next switchback up hill. There was so many flowers blooming it was incredible. Me and a parking lot full of other hikers were out enjoying the views and the hillside covered in flowers. I spent most of my time taking pictures of all the flowers not intending to join the hordes at the end of the trail. Did a full work out of Squats, lost my balance once or twice, hiked out to take pictures of strange off colored balsam roots on shell rock, managed it with a little slipping and some sliding. Decided it wasn't the wises decision, but they were calling my name. This is a great place to catch the balsam root in bloom with lots of Ponderosa Pines scattered through out, my last trip up this trail I was just a little bit early. On the way down I found some Chocolate Lilys blooming, hiding in the tall grass, what a treat. Between my hike to Patterson Mountain and Driveway Butte I saw lots of Balsam root in bloom this year. Just another lovely hike along Highway 20 heading up the North Cascades. You want to do this trail early because it gets hot and dry, and it is very much a up hill hike.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go.  One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains.  This was a spur of the moment overnight trip.  It was so needed and such a beautiful time.  Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama.  Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes.  Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment.   I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask.  The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top.  Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp.  It was truly an incredible evening, hiked aroun...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yellow Jacket Sno-Park.......................

December 29th, 2012 came along with some beautiful weather in the Mazama area....broken blue skys and a nice 21 degrees.....with my little brother and his wife up visiting through the holiday season we ventured out to play in the snow.....We originally headed up to snowshoe the Cedar Creek trail....but Hwy 20 wasn't plowed past the first sign at the bottom.....and when we came across the Early Winters bridge we could see trucks and cars parked on both sides of the road....somewhere between 25-40 rigs.....lots of snowmobile trailers.....we decided that we needed to locate another snowshoeing spot with a little less traffic since my brother wanted to do a little snowboarding if possible......so we headed to Yellow Jacket Sno-Park....Large parking area with just a few vehicles parked....we strapped on our gear and headed up the trail....nice easy hike up a groomed snowmobile track....lots of places to step off the trail and explore...we pretty much stuck to the trail on the way up.....
Post a Comment
Read more

Not all trails are created equal

 Beautiful big views, abundance of flowers, snow capped mountains all around and singing birds.  I love this hike when the flowers are blooming. This is a hike you can do multiple times in the spring and there is always new flowers blooming.  The mountain views are incredible, a nice view of the valley floor looking up towards Mazama and back down towards Twisp.  So much to see, hear and enjoy.  This is the perfect hike for an evening adventure, not to long, a fairly easy hike, the birds are very active and keep you company as you make the loop.  These pictures are only from one side of the loop, I ran out of good light to complete it since I stopped for every flower along the way.  When the balsam root is blooming it is a beautiful display of golden flowers, intermixed with lupine and larkspur.  I have hiked this trail many times over the years and am always amazed by natures incredible beauty. ...
Post a Comment
Read more