The trail that leads to Glen Lake weaves mostly through the remains of the Gash Creek Fire, which fiercely burned through the lodgepole pines. The fire left almost every tree standing as a ghostly spire, and many of those have started to fall. The fallen timber is turning the trail into a 5.4 mile series of hurdles (a great workout!).
Glen Lake itself sits in a higher basin that still has remnants of last year’s snowpack clinging to the slopes above the crystal clear waters. Olive-sided Flycatchers were singing with their “quick three beers“. A pair of mule deer bound with grace over the fallen trunks and boulders. I sat for awhile, and admired the clarity of the water, being able to make out the bottom at a great distance.
Birds Observed
| Species | Count |
| Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) |
3 |
| Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi) |
2 |
| Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus) |
1 |
| Hammond’s Flycatcher (Empidonax hammondii) |
1 |
| Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) |
3 |
| Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) |
2 |
| Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) |
2 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) |
1 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) |
2 |
| Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) |
6 |
| Townsend’s Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) |
3 |
| Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) |
8 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) |
2 |
| Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) |
4 |
| Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) |
1 |
| Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) |
4 |