Selected photos (by Laurel Ramseyer and Rod Crawford) from a spider collecting trip to Upper Rock Rabbit Lake (north side of Keechelus Ridge NE of Snoqualmie Pass, Kittitas County, Washington). We picked this subalpine site because the season was advancing beyond the time of good lowland collecting. Even at 4190 feet elevation, spiders were a little sparse, but we managed to bring an old 6-species sample up to 30, including several very interesting records. This beautiful mountain lake definitely supports plenty of mosquito larvae! On the plus side, it is not one of your popular hiking destinations, and we saw nary a human from the time we left the freeway. See Laurel's account of the day here.

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Rock Rabbit Lakes from the air (Kittitas County, 2006)	Good view of Mt. Rainier from the road              © Rod Crawford
Condition of the road prompted us to hike  © Rod Crawford	Keechelus Ridge looms over the lake basin      © Rod Crawford
Swan Lake glimpsed on the way; no dancers visible  © Rod Crawford	Small meadow (with spiders) on our route to the lake    © Laurel Ramseyer
Caltha biflora             © Rod Crawford	First sight of the lake               © Rod Crawford
Laurel on the prowl for Arctosa and Sitticus      © Rod Crawford	South shore: talus and shrubs           © Rod Crawford
Rod on a rock, taking album photos     © Laurel Ramseyer	We wonder how many have visited this island? Not us!       © Rod Crawford
Young, white Trillium flowers     © Rod Crawford	Cool, clear water               © Laurel Ramseyer
Older Trillium flowers take on color       © Rod Crawford	Huckleberry shrub meadows seemed almost spider-free     © Laurel Ramseyer
One Trillium supported Misumena vatia  © Laurel Ramseyer	Natural rock table was handy for sifting litter        © Rod Crawford
Plenty of rocks to look under    © Laurel Ramseyer	Boulder talus produced a few good spiders         © Rod Crawford
Laurel's favorite habitat under a lone white pine    © Laurel Ramseyer	Patchwork of forest, shrubland and talus        © Laurel Ramseyer
Laurel took several species on elderberry © Laurel Ramseyer	Mountain heather, Phyllodoce empetriformis        © Rod Crawford
Catkins and cones of slide alder, Alnus sinuata     © Rod Crawford	Alder thickets made lake shore access "interesting"       © Laurel Ramseyer
Zelotes rainier constructing egg sac    © Laurel Ramseyer	Lake is the ultimate source of Gale Creek        © Laurel Ramseyer
Bark of large true fir on lake shore    © Laurel Ramseyer	Large log lying on lake shore         © Laurel Ramseyer

This page last updated 11 June, 2015