RHH's photos with the keyword: lyalii

We hiked the Cutthroat Pass trail last October through early snow. The photo was taken from the area where we ended out hike but the continuation of the trail is visible on left heading up to the Canadian border and the end of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Winter came early this year to the Cascades. We hiked the Cutthroat Pass trail, part of the PCT early in October and there was snow in the pass already then. The highway is now closed and will be closed until April or May. When we hiked there we wanted to see the larches in their autumn glory and caught them at just the right time. They grow at higher elevations, in this case at 2072 meters and are one of our favorite things to see in the autumn.

Photographed at Cutthroat Pass in the North Cascades this past autumn. The Cutthroat Pass trail is part of the Pacific Crest Trail, a place we have hiked before to see the larches in their autumn color.

In mid-October, traveling across that state, we hiked Cutthroat Pass in the North Cascades. The weather was cloudy and it was cold but we had a very good hike with lunch and coffee as the top of the pass. The larches were near their peak and the scenery was spectacular in spite of the low-hanging clouds. The inset is of the Larch needles.

Supalpine Larch is a deciduous conifer that grows in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Alberta with a small disjunct population in the Cascades of Washington. It grows at high altitudes (1,800 to 2,400 m, 5,900 to 7,900 ft). We went to see the larches at Cutthroat Pass mid-October and they were at their peak. We did not see them, though, until we reaches those higher altitudes at which they grow.

Larches near Cutthroat Pass in the North Cascades.