I won’t talk too much about the Maple Pass loop hike. Instead, I’ll let my photos do the talking. Unlike yesterday’s Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm hike, I hadn’t built up any anticipation for this outing. Its description listed seven miles, two passes, a couple lakes — pretty standard stuff. But what I got was one of the most impressive hikes I’ve done anywhere, with scenery that started great and then just kept getting better.

We started in dense forest but quickly left it behind for flower-filled meadows.

At Heather Pass, we got an excellent view to the east. These were the Cascade Mountains leeward forests with their coniferous green valleys and craggy amber peaks.

Climbing beyond Heather Pass, we got an excellent view of dark Lake Ann, which the hike encircles.

Another crest in the trail gave us a view to the west. Now we were looking toward the British Columbia mainland coastal forests, a colder, wetter place with mountains covered in glaciers and snowfields. Even the sky was grayer and darker.

The scenery reached its zenith at Maple Pass, where we could look back at the loop we’d done as well as the peaks in every direction. It was as if we were standing directly on the border between the east and west Cascades.

Maple Pass itself was a thrilling, narrow ridge that offered a short stretch of fine hiking. From there we made the steep descent through forest back to the trailhead.

Elizabeth and I did the hike to Blue Lake today, and it was the most botanically interesting one I’ve done yet in the Cascades.

We started hiking at 2:15 under a perfectly clear sky. We were at an elevation of 5,200 feet, where summer was just getting started and temperatures were cool despite the sun.

The hike began with a boardwalk through a meadow. Hellebore (Veratrum viride) was just coming up and the meadow grass was speckled with wildflowers. Two in particular caught my eye: the white stalks of a type of rein orchid and the pink stalks of elephant’s head (Pedicularis groenlandica).

Our previous hikes in the Cascades were on the windward, western side of the range, in the British Columbia mainland coastal forests. There, enough precipitation falls to create temperate rainforests, but in spite of this, the trees are not diverse. Western redcedar (Thuja plicata), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis), and red alder (Alnus rubra) comprise the larger part of the tree species you’ll find there.

Now we were on the eastern side of the range, in the Cascade Mountains leeward forests. Precipitation decreases from west to east, and the terrain here is noticeably drier. There are no glaciers, there are fewer snowfields, there are more meadows, and the forests are more open. You’d expect that these drier conditions would support a smaller diversity of trees, but as I found on today’s hike, you’d be wrong.

We entered the forest, and I was delighted to find myself walking among western larches (Larix occidentalis), the first time I’d ever done so. Their needles are famous for turning gold in the fall, but even now, in summer, they were a pale and translucent green. Joining the larches was a fir from the west side, Pacific silver fir.

As we gained elevation, mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) appeared, easily identified by its drooping branches and leaders.

We hiked through an avalanche gully whose trees had all been flattened, leaving behind only shrubs, wildflowers, and saplings. The views across the valley were magnificent, taking in golden peaks that towered over blazing white snowfields and bright green meadows.

At 3:30, we reached Blue Lake, at an elevation of 6,300 feet. It was deep blue, as advertised. Surrounding it were more peaks and snowfields. Next to the lake I found an even greater variety of trees. These included Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), subalpine larch (Larix lyalli), and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa). There was also whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a five-needle pine familiar to me from high-elevation trips in the Sierra Nevada.

We found a spot next to the lake with a good view and had a snack and a long rest. Then we returned to the car, finishing at 5:10.