Sign at trailhead for the Coal Mines Trail
Since I am still being careful with my injured Achilles we decided to try the Coal Mines Trail that runs between Cle Elum and Roslyn and on to Ronald. This is a walking trail similar to the Burke Gilman Trail. Both were old railroad tracks before being converted to trails; therefore, the grade is mostly even the entire distance. The trail is wide enough for two or three people to walk side-by-side and the surface is dirt and gravel. While there are restrooms at the Roslyn trailhead at the present time there is no restroom right at the trailhead in
Cle Elum; however, there are public restrooms just a couple of blocks a way in
on the main street of the town. The trail is open to hikers, bikers, and horses in the summer and cross country skiers, snowshoes and snowmobiles in the winter.
Most of the trail is straight, wide and tree lined
The western side of the Cascades where we live is generally cooler and cloudier than the eastside where Cle Elum and Roslyn are located and where it can get very hot with not much shade. We started walking at 9:30 am when it wasn’t too hot for comfort. There are pine trees, maples, birch, and a few cedar trees plus a couple of shrubs with red berries that we have not yet identified but appear to be Bane berry. Even though one report said this trail would be mostly shaded we discovered that most of it was in direct sunlight with just a few patches of shade or dappled shade here and there. There were several wildflowers that we do not see on the west side of the mountains and some we had never encountered before.
The remains of the coal washer
Along the trail there are the remains of the days when the coal mines were operational. All that is left of the coal washer are the cement foundations, in back of the trees in the photo. When the coal was taken out of the earth it was dirty and this washing station was used to clean it before it was loaded onto the trains. There were side trails to some mine shafts that we did not take. In other areas there were tailing and slag piles where the dirt and dross was dumped after the coal had been extracted.
Map of the Coal Mines Trail with points of interest marked by pick and shovel
The distance between Cle Elum and Roslyn is about 2.5 or 3 miles and it is about 5 miles to Ronald. There are kilometer markers for the cyclists and side trails such as the Rat Pac trail for mountain bikes. We passed the 2.5 km marker but not yet to the 3.0 km when we decided to turn back because it was getting too hot under the sun. The elevation gain was approximately 100 feet, the upward incline going toward Roslyn from Cle Elum and a slight downhill on the return.
It was surprising how many flowers we saw along the trail. There were also several different butterflies flitting among the flowers. Although we heard ravens and saw one or two in trees or taking flight none were kind enough to pose for a photo. One lonely, fast, garter snake crossed the path.
Garter snake making a hasty escape into the underbrush
As mentioned above, many of the flowers encountered are not found on the west side of the mountains so some of the identification is guess work with help from C.P. Lyons "Wildflowers of Washington."
Wild Sweet Pea
Tansy
Chicory
Fireweed
Long-leaved phlox (?)
Yellow Salsify (?)
Red bane berry (?)
Goldenrod
Possibly the seed head of the Yellow Salsify
We were not the only ones who thought this plant pretty but it is probably Scotch thistle and considered an ugly sprawling weed
Orchard morning glory or field bindweed
Lorquin's Admiral butterfly
Mourning Cloak butterfly
Checkered White butterfly
Memorial to miners lost in mining accidents
The famous Roslyn Cafe sign
