This week I had to drive down to Bellingham in Washington to visit with our US bank and so took the opportunity afterwards of taking Mojo for a walk somewhere we hadn’t been before.
Since his illness Mojo is not up to really long hikes anymore so I had to choose carefully a route that would give us enough walking and some good views without pushing the little fella too much.
Baker Lake is situated in the Mt Baker Recreation Area, just East of the North Cascades National Park. Being outside of the park it is also dog-friendly which was a key consideration.
From Bellingham it’s a short drive south along I5 before heading East along State Route 20 and then North along a good quality paved Forest Commission road into the back country.
The photos on this post are not as good quality as normal as they were all taken on my iPhone rather than the actual camera.
From the parking lot the walk commences through mature forest. The trail was easy walking, a little up and down but not too much and no difficult steps. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the sunlight streamed through the trees.
I had found the route on the Washington Trails Association website and we had to keep an eye out for bears as several previous walkers had posted recently on the WTA website that they had encountered bears on this route. I’m pleased to say we didn’t on this day !
After about 30 minutes walking we came to Anderson Creek, a lovely clear fast flowing creek which Mojo happily paddled and drank from.
Another view of Anderson Creek as it empties into Baker Lake
From here we also gained our first view of Mt Baker.
Video capturing the roaring sound of Anderson Creek.
We then crossed a log bridge and continued on the trail for a further 10 minutes or so.
Soon we arrive at Anderson Point, a peninsula on the East bank of Baker Lake.
From here there are great views North up Baker Lake towards Mt Shuksan (2783m/9131ft).
And the views across the lake to Mt Baker (3286m/10781ft) are pretty impressive too. I will definitely have to return here on another sunny day with the camera to do these views justice.
There’s virtually no development after you leave the South end of the lake so it’s very peaceful and quiet. Infact, we didn’t see a single other person the whole 3 hours or so we were walking to, from or at the lake.
Panorama view looking North and West up Baker Lake.
If you don’t want to rough-it on the pebbled beach areas there are carved out logs for seating and BBQ pits so it’s the perfect spot to enjoy a picnic.
Mojo takes a small break in the sun.
Before heading back out for another swim. The lake was beautifully clear, clean and unspoiled.
As perfect as the location was eventually we had to start heading back to the car. The 40 minute race around on the trail enough to dry this damp doggy off.
It was a really lovely place for a walk and one we’ll certainly be back to in the future.
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