Monk Lake is one of three small lakes clustered in the Selkirk Mountains, just north of the US border and west of Creston. The other two are known collectively as the Nun Lakes, to the best of my knowledge, and all three lakes are in the Priest River basin. The Priest River begins its journey just a few kilometres north of the border, flowing south into Priest Lake, Idaho, then continuing south to join the Pend Oreille River, which makes a U-turn and flows north, crossing into Canada at Waneta, just south of Salmo. I’m going out on a limb and guessing there were some religious folk of the Catholic persuasion involved in the naming of these lakes and rivers.
There is a rudimentary, 2.1 km trail to the lake, with a 370 metre elevation gain from the trailhead. It climbs through a forest of mature Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir, following the small creek flowing out of the lake. Not too much of note to see here, except that I did come across a couple of plants that are fairly rare in the West Kootenays. This is bracted lousewort, which is found mostly to the south, but also in a few other locations in the Rockies and the BC interior.
Many of the plants that were flowering a month ago. like thimbleberry, blackberry elder and twisted stalk, are now bearing fruit.
The lake itself sits in a small cirque lined with avalanche chutes and talus slopes. The bodies of trees that have either toppled in, or been brought down by avalanches, have congregated at the outflow over the decades, or even centuries, perhaps.
This blue darner dragonfly was busy chasing away potential usurpers from the section of lakeshore it had staked out as its territory.
After taking break at the lake, I worked my way up the boulder-strewn mountainside, hoping to reach the ridge overlooking the two Nun Lakes to the east. I ran out of oomph not too far from the top, but it was still a lovely spot to take a rest and have a bite to eat, while surveying the lake and its surroundings. In the distance are “Baldy Rocks” and “The Crags,” two other hiking destinations that are accessed from Stagleap Park.
A curious pika came by to check me out, perching on a nearby boulder for a while.
Gotta love those cute little feet!
For the descent back to the lake I took a different route, which turned out to be a bit challenging for this old guy, with some delicate maneuvering needed to get around some very steep little bluffs. Knees were not happy. Along the edge of the talus, though, there were a few more late-blooming flowers, including the exotically named fringed grass of Parnassus, as well as the other rare (for this area) species - American sawwort, which I don’t remember ever seeing before.
The sawwort was abuzz with bumblebees gathering nectar and pollen. Bumblebees are notoriously difficult to identify, but I’m going to hazard a guess and say that these are Bombus mixtus, aka fuzzy-horned bumblebee.
The return hike down to my vehicle was uneventful, and my weary legs were very happy when we got there. The only wildlife I saw on this outing, besides the pika and a chipmunk or two, was this little black bear on the road, who only allowed me a quick, through-the-windshield shot of its rear end before disappearing into the forest.
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I love the rapid action of the bee's wings on the bracted lousewort and of course, the pika is too cute. As always, thank you Karl for bringing the high country down, so I can see it.
Karl, very much appreciate learning the botanical names of the flowers we know and learned a cirque is a valley formed by glacier(s)- not an entertainment group
Jen