5 mile Hike in Mt. Baker National Forest to two Alpine Lakes

Eleven of us drove about 1.5 hours from Seattle and went on a beautiful hike to Beaver and Ashland Lakes today.  The pictures are so-so as they were from my Iphone, but I hope they give you an idea of the beauty of the area.

Signs at the beginning of the trail head

 We began at the trail head at the top right of the picture below and walked to Beaver Lake and then to Upper Alpine Lake.

The beginning of the trail was wide and a nice place to walk.

We soon found a fallen tree turned into a lovely bench!

We started to see blueberry bushes with a fair amount of blueberries on them.  They were relatevely small and sour-ish, probably from a lack of rain.

 Tzafrir really enjoyed eating them!  He said the fruit of each bush had a different taste.

Farther on, we walked into a field of blueberry bushes.

We walked on a lot of small black rocks.

First view of Beaver Lake

 We ate lunch on the boardwalk along the shore of Beaver Lake.  A lot of trees near the shore line had died, maybe from flooding?

 The reeds of grass in the lake shimmered.

 Pretty flower along near the lake.

Unusual tree chunk along the side of the path.

Unusual growth on side of tree.

First view of Upper Ashland Lake:

 Amazing reflection of the trees in the lake:

Step built into fallen tree along the path:

 Note green acorn looking flower under the big leaf:

Does anyone know what bush this is with the red berries?

Nice staircase!

Pretty dead stump and arch way

oops!  I almost forgot one of the most important pictures--a tree limb that looked like a flying (bat?) man!

And according to my fitbit, I walked 18,000 plus steps today!!