Schreibers Meadow  | Whatcom County |  | Bellingham |  |
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Guides |
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Address www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs Baker Lake Area, North Cascades Highway (# 20) Bellingham, WA 98225 (360) 856-5700 |
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From the Forest Ranger Office in Sedro Woolly go east 15 miles to the Baker Lake Highway turnoff after MP 84. Take this paved road (north) 12 miles to the turnoff left for the gravel Forest Road (FR) # 12. At about 3.5 miles look for the right turn for FR # 13. Drive 5 more miles or to snow level to reach the parking lot and trailheads.
Description:
This is the entrance to the Mount Baker Recreation Area and the closest driving point to Mount Baker from the south. The meadow offers an open and flat area not typically found in the mountainous Cascade Range. Things to do and see here will change with the seasons and snow level. In the late summer there are a wealth of trails and stunning mountain views. Hikers can choose between cool dark forests, open sunny meadows, steep mountain hikes, or difficult glacial moraines. Creeks, tarns, small lakes and patches of snow dot the landscape - occasionally enticing hot travelers to cool off. Trails may dead-end at a refurbished fire lookout, traverse glacial moraines, or make connections for distant trailheads from other areas of the wilderness.
In the winter and early spring, snowmobilers share this wonderland with snowshoers and skiers. As summer approaches the climbers return, hauling large packs up the "Railroad Grade," named for the appearance that its steady incline provides. This feature is actually the glacial moraine once pushed here when the Easton Glacier came all the way down the valley. As you look at the great hollow cavity formed by these steep and crumbling moraines it is shocking to realize that the glacier formed and occupied this area not thousands of years ago - but only about a 100 years ago during the mini-ice age of the 1800s.
Whether from the parking lot, a high mountain trail, or the old fire lookout, a finer view of Mt. Baker can’t be found anywhere else. The steep Roman Wall forming the southern side of the summit, the crater - sometimes steaming, Sherman Peak to the east, and the seldom climbed Black Buttes to the west - eroded remnants of former "Mount Bakers" present a panorama filled with detail. The smooth glaciers will reveal their crevasses and ice-falls as the warmth of summer melts the winter snow cover away. Early season visitors must be especially mindful of these hazards since the line between winter snow and glacier ice isn’t clear. Additionally streams and creeks erode huge tunnels under the snow leaving only thin bridges which hide the dark caverns below. The Spring torrents of early snow melt are so severe that foot bridges are difficult to keep repaired and in some cases are removed for all but a few months in the late summer and early Fall.
So whatever the season, whatever your favorite wilderness activity, or if just a good mountain view is what you want, then Schriebers Meadow will provide you with the best that Mt. Baker has to offer.
Written By: Bud Hardwick
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