RHH's photos with the keyword: lake elizabeth

Last week Saturday we went on a hike with the Washington Native Orchid Society, looking for a very rare native orchid that was reported to grow near Lake Elizabeth, a small mountain lake south of Skykomish, Washington. We did not find the orchid but we did find this beautiful butterfly whose common name and scientific name are almost exactly the same. The butterfly is a Clodius Parnassian or Parnassius clodius. The story of our hike can be found here along with more pictures: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/lake-elizab...

This is a butterfly we see rather frequently in the North Cascades. This example was photographed at Lake Elizabeth and the flowers it is feeding from are of the Sticky Asphodel. The inset photo shows the same butterfly and the red-orange spots on the underside of the hind-wings.

Photographed near Lake Elizabeth in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the area of Skykomish, Washington. Keys to the identification of this species are the inflated spur and yellowish lip. This was published in the April, 2011, issue of Orchids, the magazine of the American Orchid Society, in an article titled "Taking Aim."

Photographed last summer on the Lake Elizabeth trail in the North Cascades: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/search/label/lake%2... .

This is a close up of the native orchid I posted a few days ago. Listera banksiana or caurina, the Northwestern Twayblade, has flowers around a half inch (1.5 cm) in size. The species is common here in the northwest, but because is small with small green flowers it often passes unnoticed. This example was photographed at Lake Elizabeth. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/11/n...

This is another of my wife's photos from Lake Elizabeth. The lilies are Yellow Pond Lilies, Nuphar polysepala, also known as Spatterdock or Cow-lily, one of our native wildflowers. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-vis...

Another of my wife's pictures from Lake Elizabeth, showing the outlet of the lake and the source of Money Creek. The day was dull and overcast, but she managed beautifully, I think, to capture the lushness of the foliage and quiet of this little alpine lake. The orchids are mostly on the sedge mat on the far side of the lake. There is another lake further up, Crater Lake (not the well-known lake in Oregon)., I tried to find it last fall, but the track was barely evident, it was very foggy and chilly, and soaked to the skin, cold and afraid of getting lost, I finally gave it up. We intend to find it this summer, though. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-vis...

Another photograph from Lake Elizabeth, but taken earlier in the summer and on a better day than the previous photos. The Western Tiger Swallowtail is Papilio rutulus. In eastern North America it is replaced by the very similar Papilio glaucus, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/lake-elizab...

Another photo from Lake Elizabeth. Was attracted to the dark heads of these sedges and managed to get a few decent photos. I have no idea, however, which sedge this is.

One more of my wife's pictures from Lake Elizabeth. She managed on one of our excursions to get a whole set of these stunning shots, and that in spite of it being a cloudy and dull day. This is the south end of the lake. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-vis...

This is another photo from Lake Elizabeth, this time of one of our native orchids, the Hooded Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthese romanzoffiana. The braided appearance of the flower spikes is the reason for the name "Ladies' Tresses" and these flowers are also distinctly "hooded." The plant flowers late in the summer and there were an abundance of them at Lake Elizabeth this past summer, though I've been told that in other years they are hard to find. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/09/c...

This photo was taken by my wife. She took most of the landscape shots the times we were at the lake. I was too busy looking for a rare orchid to bother with a lot of photography, though later I was sorry I hadn't taken more, especially because she was able to get some very beautiful shots. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-vis...

This is one of the few landscape shots I took on our visits to Lake Elizabeth. I was so busy hunting for a rare orchid, I didn't do much photography. This is taken from the far side of the lake and looks to the southeast. There is a rough forest service road in the line of trees at the left of the picture, the only access to the lake, and the sedge mat where most of the orchids grow is open green area on the right of the picture. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/lake-elizab...

The Tall White Northern Bog Orchis is one of our more common natives but none the less beautiful for that and fragrant as well. It is tall, up to three feet (100 cm), obviously white, northern in that it ranges across Canada and most of the northern USA and a bog plant, too, growing in the wettest areas. There are three varieties of this species with different length spurs. This has a spur about equal to the length of the lip, but a variety with a longer spur, much longer than the lip, also grows at Lake Elizabeth where this was photographed. This variety is much more common, however. This photo was taken by my wife. I took photos of this species as well, but as is all too often the case, she got the best picture and for that reason I've posted this variety rather than the rarer long-spurred variety. All three, varieties, however, can be seen at the link below. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/10/t...

Listera banksiana, the Northwestern Twayblade, is another of our rather nondescript native orchids. The plant is six inches to a foot tall and the flowers are around half an inch. It is quite common in the northwest, though this is a rare three-leaved form. Almost always it has two opposite leaves and I have not even seen a notice of a three-leaved form. This, too, was photographed at Lake Elizabeth in the North Cascades. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/08/t...

This interesting flower was photographed on a hike to Lake Elizabeth in July of 2010. At that time the Forest Service road was washed out and access to the lake required a twelve mile round-trip hike. This is the flower of a bush that was growing along the road near the lake and I had never been able to find it my references and posted it hoping to find out what it was. I was told it was a Rhododendron and the leaves look like that family, but that had not helped me find it. Since posting it, however, I have found it in the University of Washington herbarium and it is related to Rhododendron, but is called Copperbush, Elliottia pyroliflora, a shrub that is native to the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to Oregon and that grows in moist areas from mid to high elevations. It is not, however, listed in my wildflower book for our area. biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.ph... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/lake-elizab...

The Elephant's Head Lousewort, Pedicularis groenlandica, is one of our more unusual wildflowers, and the reason for its common name is immediately obvious. We found these in boggy areas along the road to Lake Elizabeth and in an area on the east side of the lake that is constantly wet with springs. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/lake-elizab...

Lake Elizabeth is the headwaters of Money Creek which empties into the Skykomish River. The Forest Service road that goes to Lake Elizabeth follows the creek for much of its distance. This photo was taken along that road by my wife. The creek was named by miners who prospected for gold, silver and copper in the area, but who were, as someone said, "more optimistic than successful." ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/lake-elizab...