Trip Report: Chinook Pass

May 16th, 2020

On this trip, my brother and I took a drive down Chinook pass and started heading up different forest roads to try our luck at finding morels! We had never searched for Morels, but we got a tip that there might be some in the area from the Washington Morel Hunters Facebook Group. This group is super helpful and provides general location and elevation for where people are finding mushrooms.

Here are some of the mushrooms we found!

Golden Jelly Cone (Guepiniopsis alpina)

Golden Jelly Cone Guepiniopsis alpina Chinook Pass Washington WA

We found a ton of Golden Jelly Cones (AKA Alpine Jelly Cone or Gumdrops) on our trip, you can find these mushrooms almost year round as long as it is wet enough to support them without being freezing. These are technically edible but I think they are considered 'survival food' by most as they don't offer much flavor.

Slime Mold (Mucilago crustacea?)

Slime Mold Mucilago crustacea Chinook Pass Washington WA

This is technically a mold, not a mushroom but I thought it was pretty cool looking. I think it might be 'Mucilago crustacea' but I am not 100% sure. To me this looks like rotten cauliflower.

False Morel (Gyromitra esculenta)

False Morel Gyromitra esculenta Chinook Pass Washington WA

Ooooh we're on to something now! While I don't personally think this looks much like a morel, I admit that other pictures I have seen online do can look pretty similar. We were pretty excited when we found this because we knew we were in the right elevation (between 2500 - 3500 ft).

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor)

Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor Chinook Pass Washington WA

A pretty common one, but not edible (though some use it to make tea), Turkey tail can be found year round in Washington growing on wood such as branches, stumps and dead trees.

Bingo! Yellow Morels!!

Yellow Morels Morchella esculenta Chinook Pass Washington WA

We only found two, but we were still pretty happy because it was our first trip looking for them. These guys look like they should be growing on an alien plant or something. We took these two home, cleaned 'em up and just fried them with avocado oil, the nutty-meaty flavor was delcious. We can't wait to go out again and find more!

Future Harvesting Prospects

There is a TON of forest to explore off highway 410 (chinook pass) so I would absolutely recommend you go check it out. Even though we only found two morels I would be surprised if we go back in a few months and find a lot more. During this trip we didn't go above 4000 feet elevation because we started to run into snow, but as we get into the summer months I'm sure we'll be able to find mushrooms even higher.