10-16-25
I
wanted to get in a larch hike.
This year it is hard as the Teanaway is on fire, as is Blewett Pass.
The road to Carne Mountain was just opened after months of fire
closure. The North Cascades and Chelan Sawtooths have larch but long
drives and crowds. Also, I wanted a sunny day to light up the golden
needles. The alpine larch were at or beyond peak and the western larch
would usually be mostly green in mid October. Berries and leaf colors
have been early this year. I hoped larch would be too. The longer term
forecast looked to be dark and wet. I chose to go now. Gary was tied up
but John was free. He was recovering from Covid and looked for an
easier than usual hike. The previous two days I cleaned of my roof and
gutters then finished painting my house. I was not looking for a
difficult hike. I took Thursday off work and we decided on a trip to
the WF Teanaway Valley with a backup plan for Manastash Lake. The night
before, Google showed the start of the Teanaway Road closed with a
detour to reach it. It also showed the road closed coming out. The
Google detour was up and over from near the end of pavement over the
ridge and down to Mineral Springs. That would be on the edge of the
Labor Mountain fire. That's why we needed a backup plan.
We met in Issaquah at 6:30 am and John drove us east. We made it to the WF Teanaway parking spot with no problem. We hiked about 1.5 miles to the larch trees. The first ones were part yellow and part green. The bigger patch are usually more yellow. We arrived to find them totally green. Rather than continue on, we chose to head back to the car. We then headed back to Cle Elum and onto I-90. We exited at Thorp and headed south. Manastash Road led almost all the way to the trailhead. Traveling 17 miles west took us back to just south of Cle Elum. The road had lots of cottonwood, aspen, and larch with varying shades of golden leaves and needles. Close to the 4350' trailhead, the colors were pretty good. The drive was better than our first hike fall color show. There were no cars at the lot. General buck hunting season had just begun and that was a concern. This is also a motorcycle trail. We were pleased to be alone at the trailhead. This hike is about 7 miles with 1100' of gain to Manastash Lake and back. Neither of us had been on this trail. It was 24 degrees at the start of our first hike and near 40 for this one as we set out at 10:35 am. It was positively balmy.
There are larch trees right by the trailhead. There are also a couple old roads that the trail crosses near the start. They were lined with larch trees more golden than green. Alpine larch are often spaced apart and are easy to photograph. Western larch are often in large closely spaced groves that are hard to photograph. Also, there were lots of evergreen trees mixed in too. The bright blue sky really did help the golden larch stand out. We came to an open section and the sunshine really warmed us up. It also had some snow on the ground but the trail was mostly bare. We reached Lost Lake at 11:13 am. after hiking just over 1.5 miles. the lake was ringed by larch trees that were between partly to mostly golden. Most still had some green. The lake has trees down low and up on the ridge above. A band of cliffs come in between and that had snow on it. It was quite scenic. We took time for a brunch break in the sunshine. We had two more miles to go to reach Manastash Lake.
The terrain was more of the same. Forest with some flat and some uphills and now some ups and downs. We had some bare ground and some snow with more snow the farther and higher we rose. For such a gentle trail we decided not be bring hiking poles. Those or microspikes would have been helpful. The thin snow was packed down by footprints and a few motorcycle tires. I had a few near miss slips but did not fall down. I kept a look out for mushrooms and we did see some but not many. A big meadow provided some partial views out. We did not see that clouds were coming in. We headed back into forest for the last leg to the lake. We were part way around the lake before I came into view through the forest. We had more ups and downs until we dropped down to the inlet end of the lake. Looking straight up we could see the golden tops of some tall larch trees with no lower branches. The only reason I looked up was that John noticed all the golden needles atop the couple inches of snow. The trail took us to a spot with views of the lake. A trail headed up the slope from here but there were no footprints. It turns out that we stopped just before reaching a spot with two nice chairs for fishing from the shore. I saw the photos in trip reports seen after the trip. Oh well, now I have another reason to return.
We put on another layer and took our lunch break here. It was now 12:13 pm. We found a lot to sit on that was in sunshine. The sky was now more quite than blue. A cool breeze was blowing. There were lots of larch trees farther around the lake. Unfortunately, most were more green than golden. Give it another week or longer for peak larch at Manastash Lake. We were half way through with our second hike of the day and it was just past noon. The views were nice but it was chilly sitting still and we had 3.5 miles to hike and a long drive home. The Mariners were playing at home at 5:30 pm for the American League Championship and I hoped to get through traffic and home for most of the game. Hiking back we took a very short break at Lost Lake and did stop for many larch photos in the last mile of the hike. Lower down the larch were much closer to being golden. In some places, a short walk off trail brought much better looks at the larch trees. We made it back to the trailhead at 2:24 pm. We saw no other hikers on either trip and there were no cars in the lot when we returned. For a trip on motorcycle trails during hunting season that was surprising.
This trip was mostly successful. We did find some golden larch on each hike. A few were at or just beyond peak. Most were well short or peak. Leaves and berries were early this year but not western larch. We had some color and some sunshine but the peak is still at least a week or more away. I did get in first time hiked trail in an area I have not hiked at all. That was fun. The total solitude was great. The larch were good but not great. With so much of my usual larch areas burning up and not open I was glad to get one larch trip. This is one I can see visiting in late October in the future.
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Trips - 2025
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We met in Issaquah at 6:30 am and John drove us east. We made it to the WF Teanaway parking spot with no problem. We hiked about 1.5 miles to the larch trees. The first ones were part yellow and part green. The bigger patch are usually more yellow. We arrived to find them totally green. Rather than continue on, we chose to head back to the car. We then headed back to Cle Elum and onto I-90. We exited at Thorp and headed south. Manastash Road led almost all the way to the trailhead. Traveling 17 miles west took us back to just south of Cle Elum. The road had lots of cottonwood, aspen, and larch with varying shades of golden leaves and needles. Close to the 4350' trailhead, the colors were pretty good. The drive was better than our first hike fall color show. There were no cars at the lot. General buck hunting season had just begun and that was a concern. This is also a motorcycle trail. We were pleased to be alone at the trailhead. This hike is about 7 miles with 1100' of gain to Manastash Lake and back. Neither of us had been on this trail. It was 24 degrees at the start of our first hike and near 40 for this one as we set out at 10:35 am. It was positively balmy.
There are larch trees right by the trailhead. There are also a couple old roads that the trail crosses near the start. They were lined with larch trees more golden than green. Alpine larch are often spaced apart and are easy to photograph. Western larch are often in large closely spaced groves that are hard to photograph. Also, there were lots of evergreen trees mixed in too. The bright blue sky really did help the golden larch stand out. We came to an open section and the sunshine really warmed us up. It also had some snow on the ground but the trail was mostly bare. We reached Lost Lake at 11:13 am. after hiking just over 1.5 miles. the lake was ringed by larch trees that were between partly to mostly golden. Most still had some green. The lake has trees down low and up on the ridge above. A band of cliffs come in between and that had snow on it. It was quite scenic. We took time for a brunch break in the sunshine. We had two more miles to go to reach Manastash Lake.
The terrain was more of the same. Forest with some flat and some uphills and now some ups and downs. We had some bare ground and some snow with more snow the farther and higher we rose. For such a gentle trail we decided not be bring hiking poles. Those or microspikes would have been helpful. The thin snow was packed down by footprints and a few motorcycle tires. I had a few near miss slips but did not fall down. I kept a look out for mushrooms and we did see some but not many. A big meadow provided some partial views out. We did not see that clouds were coming in. We headed back into forest for the last leg to the lake. We were part way around the lake before I came into view through the forest. We had more ups and downs until we dropped down to the inlet end of the lake. Looking straight up we could see the golden tops of some tall larch trees with no lower branches. The only reason I looked up was that John noticed all the golden needles atop the couple inches of snow. The trail took us to a spot with views of the lake. A trail headed up the slope from here but there were no footprints. It turns out that we stopped just before reaching a spot with two nice chairs for fishing from the shore. I saw the photos in trip reports seen after the trip. Oh well, now I have another reason to return.
We put on another layer and took our lunch break here. It was now 12:13 pm. We found a lot to sit on that was in sunshine. The sky was now more quite than blue. A cool breeze was blowing. There were lots of larch trees farther around the lake. Unfortunately, most were more green than golden. Give it another week or longer for peak larch at Manastash Lake. We were half way through with our second hike of the day and it was just past noon. The views were nice but it was chilly sitting still and we had 3.5 miles to hike and a long drive home. The Mariners were playing at home at 5:30 pm for the American League Championship and I hoped to get through traffic and home for most of the game. Hiking back we took a very short break at Lost Lake and did stop for many larch photos in the last mile of the hike. Lower down the larch were much closer to being golden. In some places, a short walk off trail brought much better looks at the larch trees. We made it back to the trailhead at 2:24 pm. We saw no other hikers on either trip and there were no cars in the lot when we returned. For a trip on motorcycle trails during hunting season that was surprising.
This trip was mostly successful. We did find some golden larch on each hike. A few were at or just beyond peak. Most were well short or peak. Leaves and berries were early this year but not western larch. We had some color and some sunshine but the peak is still at least a week or more away. I did get in first time hiked trail in an area I have not hiked at all. That was fun. The total solitude was great. The larch were good but not great. With so much of my usual larch areas burning up and not open I was glad to get one larch trip. This is one I can see visiting in late October in the future.
 Start Of Hike #1 |
 Sunshine On Trees |
 Dull Colors |
 First Larch Trees |
 Great Color |
 Blue Sky & Larch |
 Deciduous Color |
 Manastash Road Views |
 Larch Near Trailhead |
 Space Between Trees |
 Wall Of Larch |
 Beautiful Larch |
 Snow On Ground |
 Lost Lake |
 Larch & Cliffs |
 Larch At Lake |
 Shade, Snow, & Larch |
 Evergreen & Larch |
 More Sunshine |
 John On Snow |
 More Snow |
 Tall Golden Larch |
 Manastash Lake |
 Larch Close Up |
 Not Yet Golden |
 Mushroom |
 John On Bridge |
 View Northeast |
 Basalt & Larch |
 White Sky, Gold Larch |
 Gold & Green |
 Back At Lost Lake |
 John Enjoys Larch |
 More Gold Near Start |
 From Gold To Green |
 Larch Needles |
 Old Road |
 Near Trailhead |
 Roadside Larch |
 Rocks & Larch |
 Terrific Color! |
 Basalt Canyon Wall |
Trips - 2025
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