Cashmere Canyons Preserve — Friday, Apr. 25, 2025

Bottom Line:

Beautiful with more prolific flowers than expected. This is definitely a banner year for balsamroot. While fading at bottom, it is great up high. The lupine is mainly on the lower half of the mountain, as are dense fields of biscuitroot. The views of green hills pained with yellow swaths of balsamroot, red soils and dark green new grass, was truly spectacular. The best flowers are out on the Ridge Trail beneath Sunrise Peak. Try for early/late for the best light!

Stats:

• Distance: 6-1/2 miles
• Vertical: 1550 ft
• Duration: 3-1/4 hours
• Road/Parking: The parking lot off Nahahum Canyon Rd is fairly small with room for less than 20 cars; toilet; there was a single spot available when I arrived around 1:30pm on a Friday afternoon.
• Weather: Mostly sunny with increasing high cloud and temperatures from 60-70Fs depending on elevation. Light wind. There was a smoky haze south of Liberty on SR-97 due to prescribed burning. The haze extended well into Cle Elum and the I-90 corridor. Much hazier than the Iron Bear hike the day before! But north in Leavenworth/Cashmere, the skies were clear. This was a reminder of "smoke season" - I am not ready!
• Water: There is no water for filtering on this trail; carry water
• Flowers: It is certainly a good year for balsamroot, with area of dense flowers, especially at the summit. The balsamroot is fading at the bottom but is peak at the top. Lupine is lagging a bit - lots at the bottom, but very little at the top so far. There are also areas blanketed with dense biscuitroot. Among the flowers seen: balsamroot, multiple varieties of biscuitroot, lupine, clover, buckwheat, thistle and oregon grape. Later there will be fields of purple sage at the summit but just starting right now.
• Trail: Hiked out-and-back on the Nahahum Trail up to Crossroads, and then the lower Ridge Road out to a beautiful south-facing corner with an explosion of balsamroot - have not seen it this dense here before! The trail is entirely a double-track road conversion with beautiful views of the green hills painted with swaths of yellow/orange from distant balsamroot, and a hint of red from the iron soils. The trail is moderate, but steep in a few spots. There is cell service on Ridge Road, otherwise only emergency service on the ascent. CAUTION: Rattlesnakes! I almost stepped on a small one sunning on the trail, and it did not rattle to warn me off. Ticks are also present. In the general, the lower half of the mountain was quite buggy probably due to the deer population.
• Takeaway: The balsamroot is ahead of schedule, although the lupine might be a little behind. While fading at the bottom, it is good up high. This is of course a great place for early or late day saturated light - the light was really improving on my descent at around 4:30pm. There are lots more flowers to come based on the attached flower mapping, although it will depend on how quickly the hills dry out.

I have attached a video showing the striking light and color of this trail - wonderful. It also has higher resolution pics that are not highly compressed like the ones here ;)

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.instagram.com/wta_alpinewanderer/
• https://wildflowersearch.org/search?oldstate=gms%3A4%3Bgmc%3A47.543163,-120.520635%3Bbloom%3AIgnore%3Blocation%3APeshastin%20Pinnacles,+WA