Baker Lake, River, Dam - No Mountain

Even though the weather was cold and rainy, I've been wanting to go to Baker Lake and today seemed to be as good as any other day. Baker Lake is surrounded by tons of campgrounds and some great hiking trails.

After quite a drive, we piled out of the car and hit the trail. The beginning of the trail weaves through huge Douglas Fir, which grew up after an 1843 forest fire. The fire was caused by a small eruption of Mt. Baker that wiped out the old trees. You can still see snags of the cedar trees that once dominated the area. It was a beautiful trail.

Rain or no rain, Alice was smiling.

We made our way through some campsites, accessible to backpackers, and went down to Baker River. Henry can't come upon a body of water and rocks without throwing some rocks in the water just to hear them "kerplop."

Back on the trail, some of the trees were gigantic.

We went across this large, and very cool, suspension bridge to get to the other side of Baker River. Had the clouds cleared, we would have had an incredible view of Mt. Baker... but alas.

We hiked on just a little further and found yet another bridge. This one had a beautiful little stream which came down the mountain and merged with Baker River.

Parts of the River were "glacier green."
We had fun exploring the shore.

After crossing the steam, we headed down in to this valley which was obviously scene to a large and powerful flood at some point. This whole area looked wiped out.

And, oddly enough, the area was home to a swarm of frogs. How else to describe it? Let's see... everywhere you looked, you could see the surface of the ground moving. With little brown frogs. They were everywhere! Walking along with hiking sticks, you had to watch out so that you didn't either impale one with your stick or squish another with your boot.

On the way back to the trailhead, Henry managed to get out on the riverbed again and get up to this huge logjam. It was only when I noticed how deep that glacial green water looked, just near the logs, that I ordered him back to the trail.

After we made it back to the car, we drove along the lake and inspected some of the campgrounds for possible sites next summer. The lake is really quite beautiful and I hope to come back on a sunny day so we can enjoy the picture-perfect view of Mt. Baker in the background.

Don't know what was happening here. But I love this photo!

As we weaved our way around the lake, I saw a sign for Baker Dam. We were up for another adventure, so we gave it a try. Let me tell you... when I started driving over the dam road, my stomach did a flip. It was a narrow, one-lane road - one side had a lake, one side a very steep drop-off. It was unnerving to drive over it. I kept my eyes averted from the drop-off side, focused on the lake side, and somehow made it across. Whew!

On the other side, we parked, got out, and walked back over the road. It was really cool. It's part of the Baker River Hydroelectric Project and the dam is owned by Puget Sound Energy. Looking through the chain-link fence, here's the view of the lake.

Cross the road, and here's the view of the very steep drop-off to the creek below.

The kids were completely fearless, skipping and running all over the dam road (damn road!!). A year ago in the Grand Canyon, my sister-in-law had a panic attack about one of her children spontaneously falling over the edge. Today, I had so much empathy for her. She would have laughed at me today. I did okay, but my stomach was still flipping until we were back on solid ground.

It was a fun day! Glad we made it to Baker Lake, River, and Dam. Maybe next year we'll go camping there and get to see the Mountain too.