Granite Mountain Roadless Area

Index to the other Roadless areas in the Western Okanogan National Forest

Selected campfire stories from this area from Lost and Forgotten - A Trail Guide to Roadless Area Hikes and Vistas in Western Okanogan County

Granite Mountain, RA 549

Granite Mountain roadless area lies in the heart of the Okanogan Range. These high elevation forests of Douglas fir, western larch, lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, aspen, Scouler willow and subalpine fir were ignored for many years until timber began to run out in more convenient locations. In the 1980s, an phalanx of card-carrying silviculturists, timber planners and engineers marched on the Okanogan National Forest with an agenda to manage the area and bring wild nature under control. In about a dozen years, roadless areas were fragmented by as many timber sales, each with dozens of 40- and 80-acre clearcuts (and larger), covering thousands and thousands of acres. Granite Mountain would already have been logged under the Granite EIS, if hundreds of letters protesting the sale hadn't poured into the Forest Service during the early 1990s.

In addition to these environmental brush fires, Granite roadless area has had its share of big wildfires, notably the Forks burn, which burned in the 1970s, gaining headlines across the west, as it took the life of one smoke-jumper, and roared on out of control. Almost worse than the fire were the old-fashioned "Father-Knows-Best" type of restoration efforts following the fire, which involved large-scale aerial grass-seeding, followed by make-work programs for migrant workers thinning lodgepole pine. The fireline built at that time has since become somewhat of a problem, as it entices illegal off-road vehicle travel. Because of the area's heavy Pleistocene glaciation, soils are little more than sand piles, and unmanaged roadways quickly disintegrate after a year or so. Still, there are many places to left to explore (and even get lost) in Granite roadless area, from the hidden valleys of Pebble Creek to the massive slopes of Starvation Mountain. Each area has its own stories, history and unique environment.

Roadless Area Map of this area (data from Pacific Biodiversity Institute).