Flower report for a large loop around the Crystal Mt resort area (Bullion Basin to the PCT, PCT to Bear Gap, Bear Gap trail to Henskin Lake, Crystal Mt. trail to Northway Loop Trail, to Northway Trail). For the loop, I parked near the Northway trailhead and walked the road and parking lot to the Bullion Basin trailhead in the early morning and was glad I did it at 5:30 AM, there is not much of a shoulder in places. The total loop was 16.3 miles.  

The highlight of the trip was the huge flower field on the northeast slope of Silver Queen on the Crystal Mt. trail at 6200'. It reminded me of the Tatoosh Ridge. See the photos and video for details. 

The 2 north-facing meadows on the PCT, south of Bullion Basin and 1/2 mile north of Bear Gap, have thick flowers in areas, with some areas starting to fade. The .2 mile north of Bear Gap has good flowers. The Northway Loop trail has many good areas of flowers.  There are flowers throughout the hike, with some pockets of thick flowers, this is just highlighting the best areas. The google photo album has photos and videos of the highlights.  

I would recommend taking the Northway Loop trail instead of the Northway trail for the portion that it covers. It drops a few hundred feet below the ridge and is very scenic, for most of it, it is not obvious that you are at a ski resort. There are lots of flowers with much variety, a wealth of birds, and I saw some marmots. The Northway Loop trail does not show up on Gaia or Caltopo, but it is on the trail map on Crystal's website (link attached). 

This is an excellent route for weekend solitude, views, and wildflowers (details below): Norse Peak trail to Goat Lake trail, Goat Lake to PCT, PCT south to Bullion Basin (the southern passage, gentle and pretty), Bullion Basin to FS 7190-410, and 7190-410 back to the Norse Peak trailhead. 13.4 miles, over 7 hours I saw 3 hikers and 2 groups of horseback riders, I started at 5:55. 

There are 6 blowdowns on the Goat Lake trail, 5 are easy, one is a little tricky, you have to gain about 15 feet of elevation to get over it. When in doubt, see where the elk hooves go, they are good at finding the best way around and down, they even use switchbacks. There are 2 gullies on this trail that I am guessing 1 out of 10 people will be uncomfortable with, lots of loose rock and they dip down and back up about 6 feet. 

Flowers:  The flowers in the first half of the 3rd mile on the Norse Peak trail are starting to fade (the blue lupines are being partially replaced by blue harebells, cover photo), but the second half of the 3rd mile still has some nice displays. The Goat Lake trail, most of the PCT, and the trail dropping down to Bullion Basin have excellent flowers. The attached photo album has many videos and photos which show the flower fields you will see (one of those videos can be seen below).  

When I left at 1:00, there were 24 cars at Norse Peak, 4 at Ranger Creek, and 10 at Dalles Creek. 

Started at Chinook pass, where the lot was full. The lot isn’t very big, so try to get there early. I wasn’t sure what the conditions were going to be like since there wasn’t an up to date report for this season. Turns out there was absolutely no snow (yay!) and all of the wildflowers are in bloom! So gorgeous!!! And the smell 😍. There were quite a few mosquitoes though. I probably have about 100 bites. If they don’t bother you much, you’ll be fine. This section is stunning. It’s been a few years since I’ve done it and I’m glad I went back. The views never get old. Saw an elk, pika, snake, and fox this go around. Lots of people near Chinook as well as Snoqualmie. The only thing I would be aware of is if you start at Chinook and go all the way through to Snoqualmie it’s actually 69 miles, not 63. Happy trails!

Wow, what a wildflower hike with great views too! Route: the Silver Creek trail up to Bear Gap on the PCT, 1.5 miles south on the PCT, (turned around) 4.5 miles north on the PCT, and down the Bullion Basin trail, 10.5 miles.

There are lots of flowers on almost all of the 4.5 miles on the PCT. The Bullion Basin trail and upper portion of Silver Creek are flowery too. This portion of the PCT sticks to ridges and winds around peaks with ever changing aspects and views. This leads to a huge variety of flowers. Two years ago I led a Mountaineers hike here, there were 2 naturalists on the hike and they identified 75 flowers. There might be that many right now.  The attached google photo album has lots of photos showing the volume of flowers (with the views in the background) and some individual flowers.

I've attached a color-coded Caltopo map of the route with flower information and areas of special interest. The green indicates sections of really good flowers. The orange is the one section on the PCT where there aren't a lot of flowers. The black sections are forested areas with few flowers.

The purple section is the .5 mile south of Bear Gap. It has the brilliant turquoise rock penstemon (the cover picture) and at least 2 other species of penstemon. There are lots of Tiger Lilies and some the red paintbrush is beautifully fading to orange. Picture 2 is from this section. 

The yellow section (picture 3) is at the southern end of the route. It melted out fairly recently. There are lots of yellow flowers: western wallflowers, arnica, snow buttercups, and cinquefoil, with red columbine, purple speedwell, blue Jacob's ladder, and others thrown in for variety. At the end of this section where the trail turns to the south (right), there is a thick patch of Rainier lousewort that is just starting to bloom with its bright yellow spirals.   

The red section (picture 4) is the large meadow that is between the 2 trails that lead down to Bullion Basin. The pink mountain heather patches are brilliant here and will be getting even better. There is a lot of magenta paintbrush blooming and more to come. There is a lot of lupine, part of the hillside below the trail is painted blue with lupine.

This trail is always amazingly uncrowded. I started "late", 6:00 AM, on this (eventually) sunny Wednesday and I didn't see anyone for 4 hours. In the 7 hours I hiked, I saw 5 people in 4 groups. It was always easy to find some distance, I had to backtrack 50 feet or so twice to find a spot. Car counts on the drive home in the 1:00 PM hour, Norse Peak-15, Ranger Creek-2, Dalles Creek-1. 

   Took the Pacific Crest Trail in around 8 am, some snow still covering the trail at a few points, but for the most part a very easy hike into the lake.  Lots of mosquito so definitely bring the bug spray.  The trail is in good condition and easy for pretty much any level of hiker.

   The lake itself was beautiful plenty of open area and lots of grass to sand beach areas to rest and spend some time enjoying the water.  Went mid week, was still quite a few people on the trial and around the lake, to be expected with current restriction keeping some from normal day to day activities.

  Took the Naches Peek Loop out, great scenery, a lot more people on that trial than the Pacific Crest, but it was also mid-afternoon by then (1:30 pm).  Trail was in great condition any person of any age or shape can manage it with breaks if needed.