Getting outdoors when the weather gets gloomy

By Henry Zing The Daily

Art by Greta DuBois

Wandering through a fairyland of pools and creeks, cutting across meadows ablaze with patches of vibrant orange, Mt. Rainier National Park’s Skyline Trail leads into a heavy mist toward the obscured mountain above. A cold breeze rises from below, swirling around rocky outcrops, welcoming beanies and puffies. A few figures emerge from the mist, exchanging smiles as they pass, but the trail is quiet, the bustling summer crowds now absent. Suddenly, the fog directly to the south parts, revealing the tips of the Tatoosh Range poking through a sea of clouds.

This is autumn hiking in the Cascades. While the consistently dry weather and long days that make Washington summers unrivaled for outdoor recreation may disappear toward the end of September, autumn provides a brief but unique period for experiencing the region’s ecological and meteorological transition to winter.

“In autumn we transition out of the summer drought and into the rainier time of year,” Tim Billo, a lecturer in the program on the environment, said.

The most obvious allure of outdoor recreation in the fall is the opportunity to see the landscape bathed in hues of red, orange, and yellow.

“We don’t really get the fall color display here in Western Washington quite the way other regions would,” Billo said.

However, spectacular fall colors can be found if you know where to look. While deciduous trees — those mostly responsible for fall color — are less frequent in Washington (we are the Evergreen State, after all), bigleaf maple and cottonwood trees can be found in wetter areas along Western Washington’s rivers. One such area, the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, is an ideal location to observe snow geese, trumpeter swans, and other migratory birds as they arrive from the north, as well as colorful tree frogs that emerge to breed on the wet ground.

“The Nisqually Delta is great at any time of year, but it’s really fun in the fall,” Billo said. “I don’t think a lot of people realize how much is going on there in the fall.”

In the mountains, the elusive western larch and subalpine larch, both deciduous conifer trees, have needles that turn a vibrant golden color in the autumn months, transforming rocky Cascade slopes into an ethereal wonderland.

Billo recommended searching for larches in early to mid-November in the Enchantments, the Teanaway River Drainage, and Cutthroat Pass area, as they are best found in high regions east of the Cascade Crest.

“Hopefully you find a weekend where it’s cold and clear, before the snows really settle in, and you can be rewarded with a really brilliant display of color,” Billo said.

While on the hunt for golden larches, your journey might bring you to Bavarian-themed Leavenworth. However, given the pandemic, its bustling sausage houses and curiosity shops might not be the wisest place to celebrate Oktoberfest this year. Thankfully, the surrounding area offers plentiful opportunities for embracing the Bavarian love of the mountains. Pick up a six-pack from Icicle Creek Brewery and point your compass toward the brewery’s namesake, a mountain-lined river valley that provides access to the Enchantments and the Central Cascades, as well as immediate access to quality granite rock climbing.

Initial snow in the mountains is typically brief and melts before the arrival of permanent snow in early November, making for unusual hiking opportunities.

“It’s really fun to hike up in the subalpine zone, those summer trails, with a dusting of snow, and sometimes you see the red leaves of the huckleberry and blueberry poking out,” Billo said.

Once heavy snows blanket the Cascades and Olympics, skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling become the primary forms of outdoor recreation in the mountains, but plenty of opportunities exist for spending time in the outdoors elsewhere in the state. Eastern Washington contains several pockets of public lands suitable for fall and winter recreation. Frenchman Coulee, an underappreciated conservation area located a few miles south of the Gorge Amphitheater, offers a variety of ways to enjoy the Gorge’s desert vistas and basalt cliffs.

Although temperatures in Frenchman Coulee (often unbearably hot in the summer) drop abruptly in the fall, from a daily average of 64 degrees Fahrenheit in October to a brisk 48 in November, precipitation remains minimal throughout the winter, providing an ideal and convenient escape from Western Washington’s gloomy weather for those willing to bundle up.

Frenchman Coulee, known to rock climbers as “Vantage” (the name of a local town), offers hundreds of sport and trad routes for every level of climbing ability. For issues of social distancing, you might want to avoid Sunshine Wall, where the bulk of Vantage’s classics are concentrated, instead focusing your efforts on some of the lesser-known pockets of climbing. Brenden Sullivan and Jim Yoder’s recently updated climbing guide “Frenchman Coulee” can be picked at the Feathered Friends shop or REI in downtown Seattle.

Besides climbing, Frenchman Coulee is also a prime location for wandering sagebrush-laden mesas and marveling at the geological forces of volcanism and the Missoula Floods that created and exposed the basalt columns lining the rim of the Columbia’s coulees. While autumn and winter rain might seem inescapable in Western Washington, certain areas of this part of the state do receive lower amounts of precipitation than others, resulting in the occasional opportunity to experience dry weather while rain and clouds persist elsewhere.

For example, as a result of weather patterns and the Olympic Mountains, a rain shadow effect occurs around the town of Sequim, located on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. Known by locals as the “Blue Hole,” this atmospheric phenomenon makes the Dungeness Spit an ideal autumn and winter hike when the weather is unsuitable for outdoor activities elsewhere.

Located two and a half hours via car and ferry from the U-District, the 6.8-mile narrow strip of land juts out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and makes for a spectacular beach hike with views of Mt. Baker and the Olympics. It also provides plenty of opportunities for watching shore birds.

Seattle’s Carkeek Park, another excellent (and much more accessible) beach park, can be accessed via public transit and on foot if you’re unable to obtain a car. During the fall, Piper’s Creek, which runs through Carkeek Park, rewards visitors with the return of Chum salmon.

“The ones in Piper’s Creek are hatchery-raised, and they release them in the creek, and they imprint on that creek,” Billo said. “And then they come back after [three to four] years at sea.”

While outdoor recreation in the fall requires traveling a little farther, packing a few more layers, and some unpredictable luck, you are sure to be rewarded with brilliant colors, wildlife, and perhaps the start of a new autumn tradition.

Reach writer Henry Zing at pacificwave@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @ZingHenry