Curlew Lake

Joe Meche is a past president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is still active in chapter affairs.He has been watching birds for more than 50 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 30 years. He has written more than 100 articles for Whatcom Watch.

It probably comes as no surprise to regular readers of this column, but we did sneak away in mid-September for our traditional fall getaway. This year, we chose a location that is not as well known as others — at least to the friends we told about our plans before we left, and after our return. The need to explain exactly where we were going served only to generate more enthusiasm on our parts … as if we needed more enthusiasm. Our fall trips are always a reward for a summer well spent and a relaxing time to get away, especially with all the children safely back in their classrooms and into the rhythm of the new school year. Campgrounds are always less crowded/noisy, too.

This year we chose to travel into the northeastern part of Washington state to spend a week at Curlew Lake State Park. We planned to tackle the long drive ahead with an early departure, as close to the crack of dawn as possible. As on previous trips, dawn didn’t crack on Day 1 until 11 a.m.! It seems that the days of leaving early and traveling light are behind us, and getting away is more involved than ever. Nonetheless, we headed east on Highway 20 for Washington Pass, the gateway to the other side and the northeast corner!

The drive from Bellingham includes several mountain passes and ample opportunities to stretch your legs, with a nice variety of birding potential along the way. The areas around Easy, Rainy, and Washington Passes are always good for the mountain birds like hermit thrushes, gray jays and Clark’s nutcrackers. The dry, Ponderosa pine habitats around Loup Loup Pass are great for woodpeckers like Williamson’s sapsuckers and the elusive white-headed woodpecker. When you reach Wauconda Pass, in the Okanogan Highlands, you’re in one of the best places for bird watching in the state. This is a trip we’ve vowed to take again next spring as soon as the passes are snow-free.

Situated at 2,600 feet between the Okanogan Highlands and the Kettle River Range is the old gold mining town of Republic. Depending on your schedule, this is a good last stop before your final destination for the week. From the top of main street, there is a sweeping view of the town and the valley that is reminiscent of so many towns in other mining regions of Idaho and Colorado. If you’ve traveled in the West, déjà vu is alive and well as soon as you drive into town. Late lunch/early dinner fare is available up and down the main drag and the climate is superb, from the perspective of mid-September that is.

After our stop in Republic, we left Hwy. 20 and drove north the last few miles to Curlew Lake State Park. This state park, considered by many to be one of the finest in Washington, is tucked away in a relatively remote corner of the state so it’s not a trip to be considered lightly. According to Ric Sanders, Curlew Lake State Park Ranger, “Curlew is so far away from everything it has to be a ‘destination’ park. You have to really want to be here to get here. But once you arrive, you won’t ever want to leave.”

Curlew Lake is 5.5 miles long and offers everything you can imagine when it comes to a campground with water-related activities. All forms of boating are acceptable and, unfortunately, that includes jet skis. By mid-September, however, the chill factor brings a quieter crowd to the lake. The state park itself occupies just a small corner of the lake front and offers a perfect base for numerous activities including biking, hiking, and bird watching. In fact, one of the first sounds I heard when we arrived was the unmistakable call of ospreys. Later investigation would reveal three osprey nests close to the campground, as well as one lingering pair of these magnificent birds.

In my pre-trip planning I apparently miscalculated the mileage and we arrived at least two hours before my estimate. This was an early trip highlight, especially since we were all set up and settled in well before the sun went down. An excellent drive and a delicious first dinner were in sharp contrast to the unexpected weather that came crashing in just before midnight. Heavy rain was pushed by strong, gusty winds and punctuated by lightning and rolling thunder. The elements hammered away at our pop-up camper into the night. At times we could feel the wind lifting the camper, so it was a step or two beyond exciting.

Despite the rocking and rolling, our little home-away-from-home passed the test with flying colors; although, much of the campsite was rearranged. Anything that hadn’t been tied down was in a different place than we left it. All things considered, this exercise served as a reminder of the capricious nature of weather. We learned a lot, which came in handy on the third night when a similar storm blew in, but this time without the wind. We played Scrabble into the night as heavy rain fell for six hours! But once again, our camper was high and dry.

You might think that this sounds uninviting, but Cindy and I take well to stormy weather, as long as we are relatively warm and dry. We never take the basic creature comforts for granted, and this gave us a healthy dose of perspective for the rest of the week. Even though the nights were on the chilly side, the days were sunny and mild. I was up and on the go early, traversing the hillsides in search of birds, always in the company of small, foraging herds of black-tailed deer.

Given the time of year, bird numbers were low so the highlights for me started with the ospreys and included vesper sparrows, a lone golden eagle, belted kingfishers, common loons, and great horned owls. The best of birding came in the discovery of Clark’s nutcrackers in and around the campground. I was a bit surprised to see them at this elevation, especially since I usually see them much higher.

In the middle of our week at Curlew, we took a driving loop toward the Canadian border, through the actual town of Curlew and through the splendid back country of the Kettle River Range. We found more great campgrounds along the Kettle River, which we added to our list for future trips. Eventually, the Kettle flows into the Columbia, which becomes Lake Roosevelt. This lake is 150 miles long and was created by the Grand Coulee Dam in 1941. We had lunch in Kettle Falls and returned to our base camp by way of Sherman Pass and Hwy.20. This pass is 5,575’ above sea level and is the highest in Washington state that is maintained throughout the year.

Our week at Curlew Lake State Park was a huge success. The potential for great birding and other activities was enough to convince us to plan a return trip as our annual spring getaway. Spring trips on State Route 20, as everyone knows, are governed by the much-anticipated report from the Department of Transportation that Washington Pass is open for traffic. It’s easy enough to talk about as I write this in mid-November but I know that we’ll start getting itchy feet once the first week of May rolls around.