We have a small window of marvelous color now that the mud
has retreated and before dust season settles in. This in-between season, some
call it spring, is fleetingly magical. Sunlight illuminates each fold in
topography, a dappled green landscape of lustrous light and shadow. Rainstorms
fill a maze of hills and valleys before crashing into rocky crags of a high
mountain peak. Flowers bloom in different hues and scents: the lupine,
balsamroot, indian paintbrush, wild rose, shooting stars, buttercups, blue
bells, and a myriad more cover hillsides in swaths of color.
This is the best time to enjoy many lower elevation trails
in the valley: before the heat of summer arrives, and rattlesnakes emerge. One
such trail is Pipestone Canyon.
Most users access Pipestone Canyon and the Rim Trail near
Campbell Lake from the Winthrop side. Unfortunately, Lester Road is filled with
water and mud, easily eroded by wheels. I also have unconfirmed reports that
the Rim Trail is forming new canyons with the seasonal runoff. Last year I
noticed a whole section of the trail gave way to a fresh geological
transformation.
A different approach is to hike Pipestone Canyon from the
bottom up. To get to the lower trailhead, take Highway 20 towards the Loup.
Travel three miles from the WA-153/WA-20 intersection before turning left onto
Upper Beaver Creek Road. After 2.5 miles, take another left onto Balky Hill
Road. Travel for half a mile and find a closed, unlocked gate on the right side
of the road next to a ‘no parking’ sign. Close the gate after driving through.
The road is unmaintained and rocky. Travel along this road for another half
mile to a wide parking area marked with a Discovery Pass sign.
From the trailhead, you can see two distinct drainages -
head towards the one on the right. The trail follows the curvature of a hill on
the east side of a grassy meadow with pockets of wetland areas. I think this is
one of the more dramatic approaches to Pipestone Canyon, as the steep canyon
walls rise like sentries around the bend in the meadow.
It doesn’t take a geologist to see the dramatic storyline
embedded in the walls of Pipestone Canyon. But it does take a geologist to
decipher and translate the language of stone.
Starting in the summer of 1939, Dr. Julian Barksdale began
studying the geography of the Methow Valley. At times, he worked as a cook for
a pack-horse outfit to gain transportation into the backcountry. Dr. Barksdale
never published his work, stating that the remoteness and ruggedness of the
Methow Valley, combined with the complex geology was too “enormous a project”
to undertake. Still, his findings were deemed valuable knowledge and in 1975
the DNR published a copy of his work.
The 1975 DNR report includes evidence of temporary periods
of lake development, when fossils of plant life were preserved. Using Barksdale
observations partnered with 1950s studies of fossilized plant life, the report
dated the Pipestone Canyon formation to the Paleocene epoch, 66 to 56 million
years ago…while at the same time noting that some formations contained evidence
from the Cretaceous period, over 100 million years ago.
Over the years, geologists have studied the area in greater
detail and found more samples dating to the late Cretaceous period. Geologists
now know that the Pipestone Canyon Formation contains vast amounts of data
showing tectonic plate movement, folding, fault lines, and glacial carving. A
simple google search of “Pipestone Canyon Formation” yields a multitude of
articles describing this geologic drama. Or, simply take a walk and enjoy the
view for yourself.
This article originally appeared in the Methow Valley News,
09 May 2018
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