Image Lake is a tarn in

Glacier Peak Wilderness Glacier Peak Wilderness is a , , wilderness area located within portions of Chelan, Snohomish, and Skagit counties in the North Cascades of Washington. The area lies within parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Mount Baker National Fores ...

, in the

North Cascades The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the C ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The lake is surrounded by Plummer Peak to the east, a lookout point to the west, the Miners Creek drainage and

Glacier Peak Glacier Peak or Dakobed (known in the Sauk-Suiattle dialect of the Lushootseed language as "Tda-ko-buh-ba" or "Takobia") is the most isolated of the five major stratovolcanoes (composite volcanoes) of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the U.S state of ...

to the south, and Canyon Lake to the north. The course of the popular Miners Ridge Trail skirts the lake. Glacier Peak can be seen from the outlet of the lake, and the peak reflected in the lake is a popular photographic subject. As a result of a relatively mild

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

climate with ample

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

, the areas around Image Lake boast rich natural habitats with many species of plants, insects, rodents, and large mammals. Native Americans took advantage of these resources, and may have inhabited the area seasonally. However, human activity such as hunting, fishing, and mining, and recreational overuse increased after the arrival of Europeans. As a result, some areas experienced significant

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is d ...

near the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, including the eradication of large

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

y animals. Recreational overuse and the presence of

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to anima ...

were especially problematic in the early to mid-twentieth century.

Hydrology

Image Lake has a drainage basin with an area of less than . Its primary outflow is a small, unnamed creek that feeds into Miners Creek, which in turn drains into the

Suiattle River The Suiattle River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. Course The Suiattle River originates from the Suiattle Glacier on the east slopes of Glacier Peak in the Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range ...

. The Suiattle River drains into the

Skagit River The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000 ...

, which in turn empties into

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

. The highest point in the drainage basin is nearly above sea level. The lake itself is roughly circular, and has an area of about .

History

There is archaeological evidence that Native Americans had been using the area for at least 8,500 years before present, and had been present at

Cascade Pass Cascade Pass (formerly also known as Skagit Pass Wild game was apparently utilized by Native Americans, and obsidian was exploited since at least 5,000 years before present. They used several routes that passed through the region, and may have used its natural resources during the summer. Beckey, p. 220 Some tribes personified the mountains and incorporated them into their religions. Many of these routes followed ridge tops in order to avoid the dense brush and avalanche chutes of the valley bottoms. Horses were also used in the eighteenth century. There was a trail used by Native Americans as a route between Lake Chelan and the Suiattle River valley. The trail apparently traversed Cloudy Pass, which is some distance east of the lake. It was later used by miners and shepherds in the early 1900s. Shepherding was banned on Miners Ridge in 1940, but the popularity of the area continued to grow. Due to the area's popularity, the surrounding meadows deteriorated as a result of livestock grazing and off-trail hiking. As a result, livestock were allocated to the nearby Lady Camp Basin and hardier plants were introduced to the area surrounding the lake. Image Lake was originally called "Mirror Lake", but was given its present name on by Hugh Ritter and Rudo Fromme, who were employees of the

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. The lake was first surveyed on by the Forest Service.

Kennecott Copper Corporation Kennicott or Kennecott may refer to: * Kennecott, Alaska, an abandoned mining camp, United States * Benjamin Kennicott (1718-1783), English churchman and Hebrew scholar * Robert Kennicott (1835-1866), American naturalist and pioneer Alaska explore ...

, as of 1988, planned to dig an open-pit copper mine in a basin approximately one mile east of Image Lake. However, protests by various advocacy groups, such as The Mountaineers, prevented the plan from developing further. In 2003, floods washed out large portions of the Suiattle River Road, beginning from the trailhead, making Image Lake more accessible from Holden or

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

. As of , construction crews are repairing the road, which was scheduled to be open by 2014. However, the Forest Service has a limited budget, and the effort to rebuild the road has been criticized by environmental groups, partly because of the lower number of visitors, since access from the west has become almost impossible. Since Image Lake is all but inaccessible from the west, it is necessary for hikers to access the lake from the east, via a two-day hike from Holden or Trinity.

Hiking

Miners Ridge in the Glacier Peak Wilderness

The trail to Image Lake can be accessed from the

Road. It can also be accessed from Holden, on the east side of the Cascade crest, west of

Lake Chelan Lake Chelan ( ) is a narrow, long lake in Chelan County, north-central Washington state, U.S. Before 1927, it was the largest natural lake in the state by any measure. Upon the completion of Lake Chelan Dam in 1927, the elevation of the lake ...

. The trail begins by following the Suiattle River, eventually reaching open meadows with views of Glacier Peak. There is also an alpine route that leads from the Miners Ridge Trail to Plummer Mountain, Beckey, p. 383 and a little used trail that leads to Canyon Lake and Totem Pass, which is about southeast of Dome Peak.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* *

External links

Image Lake
on the

Washington Trails Association Washington Trails Association (WTA) is a non-profit organization that advocates protection of hiking trails and wilderness, conducts trail maintenance, and promotes hiking in Washington state. Their principal values emphasize the benefits natu ...

website * New York Times articl

{{authority control Lakes of Washington (state) Lakes of Snohomish County, Washington North Cascades of Washington (state)