Yellow Warblers and a Spotted Sandpiper: Birding the Goat Lake Trail on the Mountain Loop Highway

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Yes I was back to the Mountain Loop Highway to show off one of our stunning PNW lakes to a friend visiting from Los Angeles. This was my first time on the Goat Lake trail, the trailhead is pretty far down the Mountain Loop Highway, about three miles past where the road turns to gravel if you’re coming from the Granite Falls side. The parking is not far from the highway, and the trail is steady and mostly flat.

It’s a 10 mile hike roundtrip, but it’s really not that tough for a day trip. It actually has two trails that parallel each other, one that you briefly climb from the start (the left branch) called the Upper Elliot trail, and one to the right that you drop into a valley that is a bit more direct. Both have little elevation and you can make it a loop essentially by taking on trail each direction. We started on the upper trail, you are in the woods the entire hike, starting with larger evergreens and moving through some patches of deciduous trees. We returned via the lower trail which follows a creek for much of the trailed that is fed by the lake.

As you head towards the lake the two trails meetup and last mile or so has a small climb and includes this very nice waterfall coming down from the lake.

Other than a toad (maybe a large frog?) we only saw a group of Garder Snakes on the hike to the lake. Once we arrived at the lake however the birds were abundant. Plenty of Chickadees and Robins along the creek. As we arrived at the first view of the lake we were greeted by a Yellow Warbler singing quite the song likely to celebrate a beautiful sunny day on the lake. You can tell this one is male by the reddish marks on his belly.

Yellow Warbler singing, Goal Lake Trail, Mountain Loop Highway

There are camp sites to the left when you arrive at the lake if you’re willing to pack it in. We were just there for the day but we continued as far as we could along the left side of the lake until the trail ended. You could see waterfalls cascading into the lake on the far end and quite a bit of snow still un-melted slowly feeding the lake. It would be an excellent place for an overnighter, not too tough for kids and you could bring a small inflatable boat to explore further if you had the time. On the shore of the lake along the trail about a quarter of the way up we saw a Spotted Sandpiper bobbing his tail in that rhythmic way they do.

Spotted Sandpiper dipping his toes, Goat Lake, Mountain Loop Highway

If you’ve ever wondered what that shorebird is that walks along the water bobbing it’s tail, fresh water or the sea, it’s likely the Spotted Sandpiper. They are the most widespread sandpiper in North America but are considered on the decline. It was great to see one at Goat Lake! On the way to Goat Lake if you’d like to see some more birds stop by the trail head to the Big Four Ice Caves.

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Most of these shots were taken with the Sony a7 along with the Sony FE 200-600mm lens.
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