Marmot Pass — Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025

While the spectacular wildflower blooming season is over, we still enjoyed blooming aster, rangers button, shrubby cinquefoil and common harebell. The huckleberries were abundant and delicious. The horse flies were an annoyance higher up the trail until the wind picked up at the pass. The trail is in pretty good condition. WTA has not worked on the trail this season so there are places where it is really brushy, there are logs across and into the trail but only one log that requires more than a step over. Hydapse fritillaries (a butterfly) were super abundant; a sooty grouse and her chick were foraging very close to the trail and red crossbills were flying over the pass looking for ripe seed cones. It was a great day for a hike!