Directions: I was apprehensive about finding this site easily, but I was pleasantly surprised when I realized how accessable it was (mind you that I did have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, which isn’t necessary, but there were some big potholes on the drive up that could give a low-clearance car some issues). The viewpoint at the end of the road is beautiful, and worth the drive just to see the lake from that vantage point. The trail is extremely easy to find, and you can see the soapstone outcropping without setting foot off the trail.
The map in the book was great, but the ranger station at Lake Wenatchee no longer operates on a regular basis. The only ranger station for this region operates out of Leavenworth, and sometimes staff from that one will occupy the ranger station at Lake Wenatchee during the busy weekends. That station is now called the Wenatchee River Ranger District, and can be reached at 509-548-2550 or 548-2551. Also it is important to note that on the Gem Trails map, it shows “Telma” as being a town near the ranger station, and there is nothing there except high-end waterfront homes. (”Telma” used to be a small community at the lake, but for some reason still shows up on almost all maps and gazeteers!) Expect to fill up on gas and goodies near the state park at the east end of the lake, or in Plain, which is 4 miles away. Plain has modest lodging and food (a new cafe just opened in May of 2010), but is worth the trip to go and visit.
Date: May 23, 2010
Notes: I’ve traveled the Little Wenatchee Road for years, always seeing the sign for the scenic viewpoint of the lake, but never ventured to check it out. I finally decided to check out this location, and am glad I did! The view was great, and the easy access to the soapstone was worth the time and effort! I’ve never worked with soapstone before, so I stole a small hack-saw out of the garage, and hit the road. I was only able to cut a 3×3x10″ piece off, but I figured that would be good enough to start with. I couldn’t believe how easy it cut…but almost slipped on the soft powder covering the boulder! Lower on the boulder I could see chainsaw marks, which means someone was getting serious with the stone. I walked all over the area and didn’t find another soapstone outcropping like this.
Just like the book says, right below the soapstone is an excellent place to find actinolite-ladden rocks, and occasionally a large blade of the green stone. None of them were in one piece, and I doubt you could do any lapidary with them, but they sure are pretty to look at. There was a large hole in the side of the hill, which was beginning to erode the soil from the local huckleberry bushes, so be sure to use rock-etiquette, and fill in your holes.
On another note about the actinolite….the nearby quarry fishes it out on a regular basis, and the gravel that they produce is used on all the local roads in this area. If you see fresh gravel…even high on some remote road, you can probably find some nice actinolite samples without much effort!
Once I got home, I looked at pictures of carved soapstone online, and decided to do an owl for my first project. I started with a file I found in the garage…(that isn’t bad for the file…is it???) and it did a nice job of removing the stone. Then later I went to sandpaper, which worked even better. I started with 100 grit and worked up to 600, but that still didn’t give the owl a great shine. I finally broke out an old nail-file kit someone gave me long ago, and put the final “buff” on the owl. I’m including pictures, but I’m not sure how well they’ll turn out. The soapstone is really pretty, and has some red and green tints to it. Now that I know a little more about working with it, I’ll have to decide on a project, and go back to get some more!
(P.S…..I went out and bought a good hand saw from the hardware store….that poor little hack-saw just wasn’t made for this job!)
Rough and polished soapstone, Lake Wenatchee area
Front of Owl
Back of Owl
Actinolite rough
Close up of actinolite
Here is a ring I made from the small piece of actinolite from the preceeding picture. Since I don’t have any way to shape stones yet, I just used the natural shape of the actinolite, and formed the ring around it. (I’ve just started using “Art Clay Silver” which is a clay with sterling silver particles in it. Once you fire it, the sterling silver is left behind. As you can tell, I’m really proud of this ring!)
Another shot of the ring 
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post!
Beautiful soapstone! We have a huge vein of soapstone in Nelson County, Virginia, and I carve it regularly. But ours is generally black, gray, white, sometimes some streaks of aqua and yellow. Next time I am out to WA, I’ll have to look for this site. Btw, I use a dremmel tool to work my soapstone.
You must log in to post a comment.