Constancy and Cycles in the Natural World
An easy visit to Granite Falls
The best part about The Field Trip for me is visiting new places. The next best part about it is revisiting old places with renewed attention. This weekend, my spouse and I visited a place I had not seen in maybe three decades. It is not off-the-beaten path; we experienced no solitude. But the setting and what we saw forced us to witness fresh scenes, and we left revived. Read on!
Getting to Granite Falls First
We did not drive the most direct route to Granite Falls, a small town in the Cascade foothills. On this last Saturday in September, we might have encountered downpours or fog, but instead we curved along the backroads while sunlight drizzled through thick, moss-covered branches that stretched over long parts of our drive.
We passed an occasional farm and some mostly hidden, nearly trophy homes that glimpsed views of Mount Pilchuck or the South Fork Stillaguamish River. But mostly, we saw evidence of hardscrabble lives, and this year this means more than a few signs supporting the former president. The history of the region suggests life here has often been unstable.
After the Coast Salish, the first permanent settlers arrived in the 1880s. Mining and timber long drove the economy and community. Even today, shingles are cut in Granite Falls, something that surprised when I saw a Help Wanted sign.
For most people, the town is not so much a destination as a gateway for those who are heading into the North Cascades along the Mountain Loop Highway.
Rather than the mountains, we were headed to the falls themselves.
I first saw the falls when my brother took me to them just before he left for basic training. I don’t recall our conversation then, but I imagine the mood as melancholy. His departure weighed on me. Given my age (barely cracking the teenager threshold), I felt more of my own uncertain future as the only kid left at home than the uncertain and potentially dangerous future that stood in front of him. Despite whatever moods lingered about us, I felt special to be taken to this spot with him at that moment.
I have been there since, but infrequently. I wanted to see it again.
I drove past the wide spot in the road where you can park. It did not resemble what I remembered. (I had conjured up a business beside the road that never existed!) After turning around, we parked and headed into the trees, but it took me a couple minutes before I was confident that we were at the right spot.
Beyond the Falls
Others had the same idea to visit the falls on this pleasant fall day, so we elected first to walk past the main attraction and headed to the still water below. Soft autumn light pushed through various shades of green and orange, barely reaching the ground. Once again, I was reminded how lush this part of the world, something we remark on often following our decades away.
We scrambled down the bank to the boulders strewn along the water, dry because of the season and touched with graffiti because of boredom and beer. Although I prefer the sound of tides, a river’s rush works nearly as well to connect me to rhythms beyond my calendar and details besides deadlines.
I noted the color of the water, gray. I noted a floating insole, size 11, and wondered about its origin. I noted the colorful markings and imagined all the young people feeling rebellious. I noted the greens again, ubiquitous in Northwest foothills, and how some were fading and soon to be gone. I noted the tall cliff across the stream, lit up by the sun hanging ever lower in the sky this time of year.
Then, we decided it was time to move upstream.
Granite Falls Fishway
Details vary by source, but this document from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife states the fishway here includes 51 slots that anadromous fish navigate as they climb to a tunnel drilled 300 feet through rock to bypass the falls. This engineered system opens almost 60 miles of stream to spawning that were closed off because of the falls, a set of three that drop 50 feet in 100 yards. Construction was completed in 1954.
I’m accustomed to fishways being direct compensation for dams that block streams. Having one that is not associated with a human obstacle seemed novel.
We walked atop the fishway, looking below to see the pools and “steps” steelhead and salmon use. Then we moved toward a platform with a good view of the falls. Two people, one with a camera and one with a drone, shouted and pointed. Fish were attempting to jump the falls!
For quite a few minutes, we all stood still, cameras in hand, waiting and watching. Time and again, fish hurled themselves up out of the water never quite getting above the lower falls. It mesmerized me, and I felt torn between hoping the fish made it somehow upstream on their own power and hoping they found the easier way through the fishway. We moved up for a better angle, head on, to one set of the falls for better observing.
Leaving
After enough time, we wandered away. Partway up the trail, the sound shifted, and the falls’ noise softened into the background. We crossed the highway bridge on foot, high above the river to gain more perspective on the journeys through this place across time.
The moments along the river and falls energized us. Natural rhythms do that for me. They settle me down and remind me of certain cycles and constancies in the world beyond humans.
Of course, there are disjunctions in the human world that shock the system. As we headed out of town, a truck in a parking lot displayed hopeless confusion between patriotism and treason, an American flag on one bumper and a Confederate flag on the other.
Closing Words
Relevant Reruns
Since we’re talking about anadromous fish, this old newsletter pairs nicely with this week’s. And for broader context, this older article discusses regional (and international) salmon politics.
New Writing
My work is coming along on a slower pace these days, so I have no new publications to share. But I want to link again to the news story I noted last week because the reported story tells of a local solution — and these days we are bombarded with problems making a solution a nice change of pace.
As always, you can find my books, and books where some of my work is included, at my Bookshop affiliate page (where, if you order, I get a small benefit).