Hiking the Cascade Mountains - Tamolitch Pool

Today I got to see a very good example of the Western Cascades forest. My friend from Eugene, Andy, took me on a very nice hike up to an alpine pond, called Tamolitch Pool. The hike was wonderful . . . such beautiful scenery . . . and the pool, so very clear and blue.

The forest was filled with many of these beautiful spring flowers.

The water rushed down the valley floor, in greater turbulence higher up the valley.

There were many great pines tipped over possibly by some past storm. The soil is not very deep, for the entire valley is upon a volcanic bed. Many of these root systems were still gripping the large stones that ripped up with them as they tipped over.

Tamolitch Pool . . . it is strangely blue from minerals. It is surely terribly deep. And I can say with confidence, it is incredibly COLD!! We worked our way carefully around the edge and down into the valley. The river that feeds this pool comes out from the volcanic rock. The sharp stones were terribly hard on my feet. But with reckless abandon I simply had to jump in. We were both pretty hot from the climb around and down into the valley. But it was also for the experience. There was actually another individual, a rather beautiful water nymph, who was down and in the water before us. We announced ourselves to her as we descended down into the pool. She dressed as we worked our way down, and left as we arrived. Sorry . . . no picture of her beauty.

My friend joined me in a quick swim. After the dip, we sat out on the volcanic rocks to dry off. In the sunshine it was very warm, in comparison to the deeply cold water. Even just putting your feet into the flow which came out from underground was quickly numbing.

Upon our return, Andy showed me the GPS reading he took of our trip. The distant view looks straightforward enough . . .

But the close-up view in and around the pool, where we wandered around a bit trying to find a way to get down into the pool and back out . . . was rather round about! There was no clear trail to the water, and I believe we wandered a bit in the effort.