Hunting Larches at Lake Clara

Foliage making its fall turn is an obvious favorite for most of us. While it reminds me that our Washington summer is coming to an end, it’s always a welcome ease into our wet winter. This autumn season I had bright yellow on my list. I knew very little about these larches that are artfully decorating the hiking influencer posts. When I started to dig in, I was pleased to see that they were an obtainable short destination spot to experience them.

Dave and I were due to be in Cle Elum for work on a Tuesday, so with an easy thumbs up to plan a mini vacation, I started researching our route to get in on “Larch Madness”.  A larch is a deciduous conifer tree with a lot of fun facts on why and how. We were going to be able to find them on the Eastern Cascades for a very brief time, typically late September to early October. Buuuuut not this Sep/Oct. Our unseasonably warm fall was delaying the yellow tree show. I watched the reviews on All Trails regularly to see the “it’s happening!” comments, without much luck.

"When temperatures cool and daylight grows shorter, the chlorophyll is drawn into the tree, leaving behind the other colors in the leaf. In the case of larches, it’s predominantly yellow." - WTA

Our mid October meeting date wasn’t changing, so a campsite was booked and fingers were crossed.  Our first of the planned hikes was near Wenatchee to Lake Clara and Marion Lake. We decided to stay at the Leavenworth KOA (because Leavenworth!) for our home base, and this hike was a shorty listed in the moderately difficult range. We could also take the pups (they max out at the 4 mile range). Having gotten in to town early, our first hunting grounds was a doable hike to end the day with, even if another hours drive away.

The trailhead is at the Mission Ridge parking lot. We joined the likes of other Sunday afternoon larch seekers. I don’t know why this must be said, but someone was trapped, so I’ll say it: Don’t park in areas that say “No Unauthorized Vehicles Behind this Gate”.

Vista on Pipeline Trail.

This hike is advertised as 2.9 miles with 961 feet of elevation gain. The moment you cross the street and enter the opening in the trees, you’ll know the gain was solely in the “out” portion of this out and back. Up, up we went with the pups in tow.

For the first mile it’s your pretty standard Washington hike, but with fall colors painted throughout making a welcome distraction to the climb. A running creek is always a favorite sound to put one foot in front of the other and our trail gave  us much of that.

At the first elevation reprieve we had the option of left or right on the Pipeline Trail or straight up to Lake Clara. We took a left and were greeted with more autumnal colors. We turned around at the ski lift views, adding 1.5 (level) miles to our original hike stats.

Fully ready to see if my larch plans would pay off, we headed the next 1/2 mile to Lake Clara. They started to show themselves peeking through evergreens in a field just before the lake. The conifers were still in the “starting to turn” status, but it was looking like we had found what we came for.

Lake Clara

Lake Clara is the first of the lakes on this trail. Continuing on from it, Marion Lake was next and, as warned, was very low on water level. It was earning its All Trails derogatory of Pond Marion.  What Marion had that Clara didn’t was a walk through the yellow beauties.

Marion Lake at a low water level.

We were days away from some full glory moments, but I’m not feeling any disappointment. It was quite a gold show!

According to this article from the Washington Trail Association, “Larches are very shade-intolerant and as a result grow in open, often fairly young forests. Not coincidentally, they occur in fire-prone areas. West-side climate conditions result in far less fire frequency, and as a result less forest disturbance or openings.”

"Once you start larch hiking, it will fast become an annual tradition." - Best Larch Hikes in Washington State