White River Camping and Mt Sauer - May 11-12, 2013

Derrick and I ended up with an unplanned 3-day weekend and decided to head out for some car camping. Although things are starting to melt out it was a little challenging to find too many longer hikes that were snow free. The weather was also a little bit rainy so we decided to head east of the mountains.

Our original thought was to camp at Fish Lake right near Lake Wenatchee. However, we were unable to find any camp sites near the water that weren't already taken. Our next thought was along Lake Wenatchee, but a big storm in December has left many roads closed due to blow downs. We perused a few other forest service roads that pushed the off-road limits of the civic. Then we checked out our map and decided to head up the road along the White River.

I'd never been back in this area before and it was much more scenic than I had imagined. We drove for a ways and decided to see how far back we could get on some of the forest service roads. We almost made it to the very end of the road before hitting a patch of snow that blocked access. We then headed back to the turn out for Auto Tour Stop #4 and found a nice campsite along the roaring river. We thought we were going to have it all to ourselves until a family with a camper pulled in. Luckily they were pretty far away and the river drowned out any noise. It looked like we might have been the first people to camp there for the season as the site was littered with fire wood.

Our campsite by the river

We had a relaxing evening, grilled some burgers, and sat by the fire til turning in for the night. The next morning we debated for a while on our plan of action. We decided to check out the other three auto tour stops along the drive. One led us up a long winding road to what we assumed would have been a look out, but we were stopped after several miles by a large blow down. Then we considered the grooling hike up to dirty face lookout, but weren't sure about the snow. We settled on Sauer Mountain in Peshastin, not too far from Leavenworth.

Flowers along Sauer trail

Sauer was a nice hike and actually a bit steeper than I imagined. It was a nice climb through lots of meadows of flowers. Arrow leaf balsam root, indian paint brush, and lupine were all putting on a nice show. At the top we had good view of the Enchantments and the south end of the Glacier Peak wilderness. After the hike we made a quick stop in Leavenworth then headed back to Seattle.

Lupine

Arrow Leaf Balsam Root and Lupine

Our lunch break a little bit below the summit

Panorama from the top

Clouds moving in over the Enchantments

More flowers

Penstemon

Derrick at the top

Me and Leavenworth down below

Heading back down

Goldmyer Hotpsrings May 4-5, 2013

We finally got a sunny weekend, unfortunately the mountains had super high avalanche danger leaving us with few options. Luckily we were able to score a reservation at Goldmyer hotspring for a weekend of relaxation.  Sam, Sarah, Derrick, and I headed out of Seattle after a lazy morning and out to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River.

Goldmyer is a privately run hotspring on the edge of the national forest. It's not very far from Seattle, but involves a fair amount of dirt road driving to really get there. We parked at the Dingford creek trailhead (same place we departed for Derrick Lake) and headed along the road.

Things are starting to melt fast in this area as you can tell from all the roaring creeks. It was so nice to be out in the sun and looking up at the beautiful mountains of the Cascades. The hike in is about 4 miles and relatively flat. We decided to do some luxury backpacking which meant we had some pretty loaded down packs. Sam even hauled in a giant frying pan.

We arrived at Goldmyer around 3:00 and were greeted by the grounds keeper who lives on site. He check our permits and gave us the low down and we headed to pick out a campsite along the river. We set up our tents, suited up and headed to the hot springs.

The springs are about a quarter of a mile from the camp and well worth the extra walk. There are four pools. The hottest one is in cave that has been blasted out of the rocks and goes back for about 20 feet. Below that is a second small pool that is the perfect temperature. Below that is a larger slightly cooler pool. Lastly there is a small cold pool. I will note in case anyone is interested in going that the hot springs are clothing optional so you might want to reconsider if your shy about nudity.

Enjoying the pools

It was great to soak and relax and enjoy a sunny day. It was cool enough in the trees that the springs were very pleasant. Sam and Derrick spent most of their time jumping back and forth from the cold pool to the hot pool. There were a few other folks enjoying the water, but the limit the visitors to 20 per day so it never felt crowded.

Sarah in the second pool

After some soaking it was back to camp for a stir fry dinner. Then back to the pools for a night time soak. In the morning we had pancakes and egg scrambles. We packed up our gear, got in one more soak and then hit the trail. It was hard going back to work the next day after such a beautiful relaxing weekend. Derrick and I agreed this is our favorite hot spring in Washington.

The river which runs right by the hot springs

Under the big log is the cold pool