I picked Beckler Peak hoping for a good view with little effort. My mistake on this cloudy day.
Still a 2 hr drive, even thought it's only ~70 miles away.
6.6 miles on FR 6066 is full of pot holes. We are the first car here.
Beckler Peak starts on a decommissioned road.
Along the road quite some weeds blooming: common tansy and pearly everlasting, large leaf aven, fireweed.
Once on the trail, it's in the forest. No flowers. At the higher reach, huckleberry patche on the ridge without many berries:(
Well constructed trail.
The trail ends on a rocky outcrop, not the actural Beckler Peak.
I scouted for a path to go down the notch, but gave up.
Too cloudy for a view. We waited for a long time.
The only saving grace is an owl at the rocky end. I've never seen an owl this close, let alone in day light.
Of course, he flew away before I could take a photo.
On the way back, met a young couple, then a family of 4 with 2 small kids and a dog, and heard someone off the parking lot.
Picked some boletes, in very good shape. Tons of russulas.
Drove back towards Index. Saw a grouse in the middle of the bumpy road.
Stopped at a large pull-out of Hwy-2. Walked up to Heybrook Lookout.
The trail is very busy, nothing interesting. The final lookout is very nice, almost looks new.
For this low elevation (~1800', 1000' lower than Beckler's TH), the view is very good, now that half of the clouds have dissipated.
Index is dead into your face to the south.
Barring to the east, still obscured by clouds.
The latch to the top floor was locked. Can only walk around below that.
On the way back, met the family who would spend the night in the lookout. The mother said that she made the reservation back in April!
Surprising, no traffic on Hwy-2 coming back. Back in Seattle before 6pm in sunny blue sky. Cooked up the mushroom for dinner.
