Morel Mushrooms and Mushroom Hunting banner

visit

2406 Views 8 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  lannyf
I will be traveling to Seattle on business next week. I am going to take a couple days for myself. Will there still be Morels to be found? If there are might there be a area of the state that may be more fruitful than others?
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
Hi MYOR, Welcome to Washington! Right now the only places I can suggest right now are either the eastern side of the cascades or the Cascades themselves, we're talking 3500-4000 ft. range. be careful though, some areas require actual liscenses for picking morels. No, I'm not kidding! Some are free and some require a fee. Also, we now have a Washington Discover pass that runs about $35 for use in state owned properties.You should research the area(s) you plan on searching and get a good map that shows items like national forest lands and such before heading this direction. once you've got who actually owns the land, search for that name on the i-net, and see what if any fees or liscenses they require. Hope this helps.
indytransplant
Thanks for the advise Indytransplant
Seems all the rules will take the fun out of it. I have a couple days so may go for a hike just to look around. Not sure that I would do any picking anyways.
Definitely worth hopping on the I-90 and heading east an hour and a half. Your timing might be perfect for landing on the fire morels.
Hi Lannyf
I have arrived in your beautiful state of Washington. Worked today tells me I am wrapping up early tomorrow. I will have a few days to myself and will take your advise and take a drive.
I must have walked for ten total miles this spring in Northern Virginia and have not found any.
I have been hunting mushrooms a couple years now, I have found some edibles but not a Morel yet.
Is the burnt area you wrote of obvious?
Thanks for the tip!

Hi again myor, some how you responded to lannyf and it got sent to my email? Oh well, Lannyf had about the best advise as any. As I understand the morels aren't showing in any numbers this year, at least not yet anyway. I intend to go up w/my brother on thursday and if we find many, I'll go back up on the weekend. Good Shroomin'.
OK thanks again Indy
Good luck to you guys!
The burns are pretty obvious, especially stuff that went up last year (no vegetation has returned yet) but I have definitely been having better luck just looking for naturals, rather than the fire commensals. The low elevation (~1500') flats were popping off about a month ago, and now it's just a matter of finding the elevation that the flush is at. A buddy just found some around 3500' that were perfect.

As indytransplant said, it hasn't been a great year thus far. Was super dry until about last weekend, and there is still snow in the mountains below 5000' so soil temperatures are lingering on the low side. The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest was apparently nuts last year following the Table Mountain-Wentachee fire complex in 2012, but everything I am hearing and experiencing says it is kind of hit or miss this year. Definitely no hordes of commercial pickers...yet.
Also, you can collect up to 3 gallons per day for personal consumption without a permit in Okanagan-Wenatchee. They like you to slit the stem up the length of the mushroom so it's not in resale condition.

Best of luck!
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top