RHH's photos with the keyword: skagit county

These are Purple Pitcher Plants, Sarracenia purpurea, photographed at the Little Bog of Horrors, as we call it. The photo was taken by my wife, some of whose pictures I've added to the blog posting about the place where these plants were found: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... . As I've mentioned in a previous post, these plants are not native to the state of Washington, but someone has introduced them into a floating bog or muskeg at a Lake in Skagit County and they have established themselves there, along with other species of Sarracenia and the Venus' Flytrap.

This was photographed at Summer Lake, the lake where all the carnivorous plants grow. It was the only other thing we found in bloom on our last visit and we found only this last lonely flower spike. After all the carnivorous plants, however, everything begins to look sinister and one wonders if there are secrets hidden even in these lovely flowers. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi...

This and the previous picture were taken on the edge of the muskeg or floating bog on Summer Lake in Skagit County, Washington, with the water of the lake as a background. The deadly beauty of these plants was evident when we looked inside the pitchers - not much water but the lower part of every pitcher was filled with dead insects. There are three species of Pitcher Plants growing in the bog. This is the Yellow Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia flava. The other two are the White and Purple Pitcher Plants. More pictures of the lake, of its floating island and of these plants can be found on my blog: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... .

Beautiful lake, you say? Quiet and peaceful scene? What you don't know is that at every corner of this lake there lurk creatures of your worst nightmares, creatures who eat other creatures alive, swallowing them whole. Scotland has its Loch Ness and its monster, but Washington has Summer Lake and the Halloween creatures that hide there. This is a place you would not want to visit at night nor on Halloween, for there are found flesh-eating plants, and who knows what they will do if you go alone or in the dark. On a more serious note, this is the east side of Summer Lake, the place where someone has introduced various species of carnivorous plants. The picture shows part of the muskeg or floating bog on the right. Standing where this picture was taken one is standing on a mat of floating vegetation that moves underfoot and that is the home of these carnivorous plants. Interestingly, the lake is also the home of a man-made floating island that has trees growing on it that are at least 20 years old. More details and pictures of this unique place can be found on the following blog entries. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...

"I felt that something horrible was near from the moment that my foot first touched the water" - Frodo in "The Fellowship of the Ring." Taken at the north end of Summer Lake early in the morning. There were no carnivorous plants found at this end of the lake but they were nearby! ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...

My apologies to the couple of you who commented on this photo. I had uploaded one other than what I wanted, deleted it and put up another. These are the daffodil fields of the Skagit Valley bulb growers.

A last picture, I think, from our excursion to Summer Lake. This is the Yellow Pitcher Plant, now established by the thousands on the floating bog and shores of the lake. If you look closely you can see a fly perched on the rim of the pitcher and one can only guess what happened to it, but that close to the opening it probably became a meal. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/carnivorous...

This photo was taken in the old cannery on the 400 acre agricultural part of the hospital grounds. The cannery provided employment for the residents of the hospital and processed the fruit (especially strawberries) and vegetables that were grown on the farm, as much as 1.5 million pounds annually according to one of the signs. The four buildings that are part of the Cannery are now some of the most ruined and derelict buildings on the site. with roofs falling in, windows gone and old benches and machinery sagging and fallen. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

These are some of the barns at Northern State Hospital, dairy barns, I believe, and part of a complex of barns and buildings that also included stables and a poultry-raising operation. The barns are seen here from the fields below where many of the crops were raised and over a tangle of brambles and weeds. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

As noted with the previous picture, some of the old administration and hospital buildings on the grounds of Northern State Hospital have been put to other uses. The farm has been allowed to fall into ruin as is evident from this photo of one of the old farm buildings. These are still accessible to the public and are part of a public park. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

I'll be posting a series of photos taken at the old Northern State Hospital, in its day a state-of-the-art facility for the mentally ill. The place was designed by Frederick Olmsted and included not only a hospital and administration buildings, but an extensive farm and a cannery as well and was meant to be self-supporting. This one of the old hospital or administration buildings and it is on a part of the campus that is closed to visitors as we soon found out. After taking a few photos we were quickly informed that we were not welcome. This part of the campus is still in part in use by the Job Corps and the National Guard. The old farm is now a public park and is in a state of ruin but is accessible to the public. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This is one of the old cannery buildings in the agricultural area of Northern State Hospital, formerly a state-of-the-art facility for the mentally ill. It is falling in on itself and is probably even a bit dangerous though we went in side and took pictures. The previous picture was taken inside this building. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

Taken in one of the old cannery buildings on Northern State Hospital's 400 acre agricultural land, now a public park. This room appears to have been used for storage but is typical of the buildings on the site, roof falling in and in complete disrepair. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This detail shot from the chapel at Northern State Hospital shows that even those buildings that have received some upkeep or are still in use, are also in need of repair. Here too the details of the Spanish Revival architecture are evident. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This is the interior of the barn shown in the photo, below - even worse from the inside than from the outside. It appears to have housed equipment and machinery for the dairy (in one of the rooms there is a large boiler). ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This photo was taken in the hospital area before we were told to leave. Though some of the buildings there are in decent shape and still in use, others are not, as is evident in this shot. I do not know, however, what was in this building when the hospital was still open. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This is the chapel at Northern State Hospital. We could not tell if it was still in use, bit it appeared to be in fairly good repair. It is a good example of the Spanish Revival style in which the hospital and administration buildings were designed and is in the non-agricultural part of the hospital. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...

This is another shot from the agricultural area of Northern State Hospital, the part of the grounds that is now a public park. As I noted in an earlier post, the cannery provided employment for the residents and income for the hospital and used the fruits and vegetables which were grown on the farm. These are the most dilapidated buildings on the grounds as is evident here. What exactly the equipment was used for I do not know, but it is rather ironic that the fallen fruit from an old apple tree outside now litters the floor of the cannery and goes unused. I don't ordinarily post in black and white or monochrome, and because the sunny day accented some of the subtle coloring, I didn't, but most of these pictures are actually better in monochrome which seems to emphasis the sad condition of these buildings and seems to make them more stark and grim. I am, for that reason, tempted to repost the whole set in monochrome, but we shall see. I have a lot of other pictures from last summer that I would like to post also before spring and summer and another hiking season arrive. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/01/northern-st...