Spider Meadows and Upper Lyman Lake
Spider Meadows and Upper Lyman Lake
Spider Meadows and Upper Lyman Lake are in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. I had visited once before, when I hiked the Spider Meadows – Buck Creek Pass Loop and I was smitten with the area near Upper Lyman Lake.
My friends, Em and Amber were interested, and so we planned a 6 day trip: Hike to Spider Meadows, climb up and through Spider Gap, slide down the snow fields to the Upper Lyman Lake Basin, stay a few days, and then head back the way we’d come.
Things did not work out exactly as planned, but it was an awesome trip!
We arrived at the trail head and made our way up the Phelps Creek Valley to Spider Meadows. Nestled between ridges of stark rock the green of the valley was filled with amazing wildflowers. The day was late and I managed a few pics before we set up camp, a bit further up the way.
The next morning we started the long climb up to Spider Gap. We passed an awesome camp site along the way, just made our way through the gap. Reaching the saddle at the top, we donned our snow pants and slid our way down to the Upper Lyman Lake Basin.
The image above is a panorama of Upper Lyman Lake. On the left is Chiwawa Mountain, adorned with the Lyman Glacier. We saw several skiers who had hiked in to the lake, climbed up to the top of the glacier and then skied down!
Continuing our way along the lake to the meadows nearby we were assaulted my hordes of hungry mosquitoes!
They followed us as we hiked, hoping for a camp site with enough breeze to discourage them.
But nothing stopped them, we tried several repellents, head nets, but to no avail.
We found a shaded spot for the tent, hurriedly set it up and jumped in.
We were exhausted from the climb up and over, cooked from the bright sun. The prospects of staying here, in the basin, prisoners in our tent, was not attractive. We managed to cook some food and spent a grumpy and unpleasant evening cursing mosquitoes.
Evening came, and when the bugs retired I popped up to try a few Milky Way shots. I decided to use the tent as a foreground, and while I was there setting up the camera, we had a visitor! You can see in the second image that the moon started to rise, making the mountain glow with light.
The decision was to escape the bug infested valley, and head back up and over the the pass, making for the camp site at the top of Spider Meadows. We woke at 5am, trying to beat the sun on the snow, and made our way through the clouds of blood suckers.
We made it back to the ridge camp, perched above the meadows and spent a wonderful day relaxing! The sunset and night sky were magnificent!
The next morning we descended to Spider Meadows where I spent some time in sensory overload with the fantastically brightly colored wildflowers.
And that, as they say, was that! The Glacier Peak Wilderness is a wonderland of mountain peaks, high basins and flowers and Spider Meadows and Upper Lyman Lake are wonderful places to visit, I can’t wait to return!