Whistle Lake - Anacortes

Whistle Lake is one of my favorite hikes for finding very early spring wildflowers. The climate around Anacortes is tempered by the nearby ocean so it's usually far ahead of the interior bloom season.

Another interesting aspect of this hike is the unique variety of flora here which includes species rarely, if ever, seen in the mountains, like the Oregon Fawn Lily and the magenta and gold Checker Lily. Geeky note: There is a lot of confusion about the so-called Chocolate Lily, which common name has been applied to several different species of lilies including the Checker Lily. This is a classic example of the dangers of using common names as opposed to scientific names. For the record: my picture is Fritillaria affinis (formerly known as F. lanceolata) aka Checker Lily aka Chocolate Lily aka Mission Bells aka Rice-root aka Purple Fritillary). The other "Chocolate Lily" is Fritillaria camschatensis aka Kamchatka Fritillary aka Indian Rice aka Black Lily. You get the idea.

The Whistle Lake trail is really many different trails centered around Whistle Lake, all part of the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. For more information see:

http://www.cityofanacortes.org/parks/ForestLands/index.htm

and for an excellent map:

http://www.pnt.org/maps/Whistle Lake.pdf

Using this map, my route was trail 20, 204, 246, 204, 21, 22, 205, 20. You can see how it's pretty much a necessity to have a copy of this trail map when hiking here. There are a few map signs around the area, but they are few and far between.

All the well-groomed trails are easy going with little elevation change, so it's not a challenging hike. It's more of a "just wanna get outta the house without stomping through deep snow" hike. But Whistle Lake is beautiful and well worth the effort, particularly for wildflower enthusiasts looking for something different.