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Mountaineers Books.
Copyright © Craig Romano/The Mountaineers Books Snow Lakes
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Day Hiking: Central Cascades,
by Craig Romano.
A portion of all book sales from the links above benefits WTA and helps protect and maintain our trails. Start by dropping 50 feet to cross Icicle Creek on a big bridge. Follow an old road to the right to an irrigation canal. Take a minute or two here to scope for birds. The brushy creek banks provide excellent habitat for warblers and tanagers. Then on real trail, begin some real hiking! Climbing out of the Icicle Gorge, the trail switchbacks up hot and dusty rocky slopes denuded of shade thanks to wildfires in 1994 that burned more than 180,000 surrounding acres. Best to get an early start. Lack of forest canopy also translates to views. Enjoy good ones west up the Icicle Gorge and north to Sugarloaf Mountain. Enjoy, too, the occasional residual groves of shade-providing green pines. At 1.2 miles enter the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (elev. 2200 ft). Now on a considerably easier grade, traverse the lower reaches of Wedge Mountain. With the impressive favored-by-climbers Snow Creek Wall across the way, the trail heads up a tight slot of a valley. Snow Creek crashes below, while heat radiates off of surrounding granite ledges and boulders. At about 2.25 miles enter a cool grove of old cedars, a welcome relief from the heat. Pleasantly amble a ways creekside through refreshing forest before beginning another round of switchbacks. This time, however, they're much rougher and steeper as the trail heads up rocky gullies and across slides, working its way to a hanging valley. At about 4.25 miles pass a showy cascade, and shortly afterward cross Snow Creek on a reliable bridge (elev. 4100 ft). Pleasant walking resumes as the trail passes a lot of nice spots along the creek for snacking and napping (or calling it quits). Farther along, the trail breaks out of forest to traverse a talus slope before arriving at Nada Lake at 5.5 miles (elev. 4900 ft), which is really quite a pleasant lake. Take a break along the shallow finger lake, admiring its mountain reflections, or push on another mile, climbing up a hot talus slope to a forested gap (elev. 5450 ft) before dropping a tad to the Snow Lakes (elev. 5415 ft). Set in a wide-open basin beneath jagged and spiraling peaks, and separated by a small irrigation dam, these two lakes are among the largest in the Enchantments. For the best viewing, napping, and feet-soaking spots, you'll need to walk across the dam. But with water cascading over it, it may appear intimidating. If the flow is low, just take it slow and you'll be good to go. Views of the 8292-foot Temple and the large, rocky, snow-blotched cirque beneath 8364-foot McClellan Peak from the pined shoreline of Upper Snow are awesome. The lower lake, with its shoreline of granite ledges, looks like it's right out of the Canadian Shield. You can spend days up here, and it's easy to see why most hikers do. Perhaps a return trip is in order with tent and sleeping bag. Just don't forget to apply for the permit.
Driving Directions:
From milepost 99 on US 2, on the western edge of Leavenworth, follow the paved Icicle Creek Road (Forest Road 76) for 4.2 miles, turning left into a large parking lot at the trailhead (elev. 1350 ft). Privy available. Recent Trip Reports
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Multi-night backpack
Features:
Fall foliage
Issues:
Water on trail | Snow on trail
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We departed mid day on monday morning from Stuart Lake TH. The first night we camped at Colchuck Lake....
We departed mid day on monday morning from Stuart Lake TH. The first night we camped at Colchuck Lake. Estimate it got down to the 20's at colchuck. It was a clear night and the small lake to the right of Colchuck (when looking at Asgard Pass) wasn't frozen when we went to bed but had a complete layer of ice over it when we woke up.
On day 2 we climbed Asgard Pass. There was virtually no snow on the pass. However once you pass the stand of trees about half way up you start to encounter ice. The last 300 ft or so was pretty bad. You will need crampons or at the least microspikes. For less experienced persons I highly recommend possibly using a rope for safety. As soon as you get over the pass the enchantment basin is filled with snow. It is a hard crusty snow probably 1-2 ft deep. We climbed Little Annapurna and had amazing views of Rainier, Mt Adams all of WA and probably parts of Idaho. Visibility was unlimited. That night we camped near the first privy as you head down the basin. It was a perfectly clear night but very cold. Probably in the teens. Water froze within minutes unless it was with you in your sleeping bag. There are some areas of running water but they probably wont be around much longer. You should bring ice axes. On day 3 we set our alarms and awoke to an amazing sunrise. Another 100% clear day the larches were beautiful. Just past there peak but still 75% of the needles on the trees. We spent day 3 hiking down the basin to Upper Snow Lake. We used traction devices for the majority of the hike. Some of the rock faces had ice. I expect the ice to only get worse so recommend you definitely carry rope. The basin was gorgeous. The temperature steadily increased as we dropped in elevation. At snow lake it was probably just at or above freezing. On day 4 we hikes out to the Snow Lake TH. Once you reach Snow lake there are some muddy sections of the trail. We had a perfect weather window for this hike. Overnight
Features:
Fall foliage
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Snow on trail
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Did the Enchantment loop in two days starting at the Stuart Lake TH (Colchuck Lake), and ending at the Snow...
Did the Enchantment loop in two days starting at the Stuart Lake TH (Colchuck Lake), and ending at the Snow Lakes TH. I got started around 1pm because of a little mishap in the city, but still got up and over Aasgard by 6pm when the sun set. The trail to the lake is clear, fun, quick if you have a light pack. Many folks had attempted the pass and had told me not to even think about it without crampons or microspikes. I had neither and did the pass lake-level to pass in 1:45 with neither and a 38lb. pack, though I'd recommend at least spikes as when I was there the path had worn down and was quite slippery in places. Mountaineering boots recommended too. One section perhaps 400ft. from the top is a little tricky, but nothing to make the hair on the back of the neck stand up for. Just some compacted ice going up and over a boulder. Just go carefully and if you fall, it'll hurt a little but you won't die.
Once n the upper enchantment basin, there's 1-2ft of snow, and it is incredibly easy to follow the trail. I camped a mile past the pass. Climbed Little Annapurna in the morn, Prusik Pass in the afternoon, descended all afternoon past all the beautifulness and slowly made my way back to the other trailhead about an hour and a half past sundown. Water everywhere, the upper lakes are frozen and accumulating snow. Snow starts around Colchuck and ends just below Vivian. The long slog out is straightforward; kind of tough sometimes just below Vivian. Great trip though. Perfect weather. Larches just past their peak, still bright orange. No permit needed either. :] Overnight
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Fall foliage | Ripe berries
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We left the Stuart Lake trail head about 1:00pm on Wednesday and arrived at arrived at Colchuck Lake around 5:00pm....
We left the Stuart Lake trail head about 1:00pm on Wednesday and arrived at arrived at Colchuck Lake around 5:00pm. The weather was great--around 60 degrees the entire way. A few flies but nothing biting. It was a challenging first day and ascent but doable. We traveled with our 12 year old son and he had no difficulty. After a few not so great camp sites, we found a great site almost to the Southern edge of the lake. The evening was windy but actually warm.
We started out toward Aasgard Pass at 6:40 am the following morning and made the summit at around 10:30 am. The morning was overcast and really windy. This was our first trip to the Enchantments, and we thought we were prepared. However, the ascent up to Aasgard Pass is not for a novice hiker. In my opinion, anyone attempting this hike/climb should have some solid experience in scrambling up rock paths and cliffs. The path was well marked with cairns, but many sections are unstable with loose rock and boulders. The wind also added a bit to the suspense. Once we reached the summit, the view was amazing. The weather continued to be a bit overcast, but no storms. The trails were clear and well marked with cairns. Only saw 1 mountain goat the entire trip. The upper Enchantments were beautiful. No bugs here. The descent down toward Vivian Lake was a bit steep with some serious drop-offs. I would not want to tackle these in wet conditions or with heavy packs. The final 6-7 miles were grueling. All of the other reports will confirm this. We only had 2 days to do the trip and it was truly a Death March. Next time we will take the 3-4 days every one else recommends. The larch were turning and the scenery was stunning. I think September must be the perfect time to do this hike. While our son did very well, I would say this is not a hike for kids! Multi-night backpack
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We did not have a permit for the core Enchantments. Instead, we started at the Snow Lake trail head and...
We did not have a permit for the core Enchantments. Instead, we started at the Snow Lake trail head and camped there the first night. We started out about 9:40am and made it to Snow Lake with enough time to set up camp and hike up to spend 30 minutes at Lake Viviane in the core Enchantments and get back to camp before sundown. The water level at Snow Lake appeared low and no water was flowing over the dam between the upper and lower Snow.
On day 2, we broke camp at about 9:40am and hiked back up to Lake Viviane and through the lower and upper Enchantments. Trail conditions were optimal and there was very little scattered snow. No gaiters required. We lunched at Perfection lake just after noon. By 2:50pm, we were looking out over Aasgard pass. We did not take any side trips because we needed to make it down to Colchuck before sundown. Descending Aasgard pass took just less than 3 hours. The descent is tiring and brutal, especially on the knees and toes. There was only one spot that we needed to remove our packs, however, to scramble; the rest of the scrambles were doable with pack on. One nice thing about descending Aasgard is that the trail is more easily seen from above than below (and I don't mean just the cairns, but the actual trail). Once we reached Colchuck, we took a brief (15-20 second) swim to refresh ourselves in the cold lake water and then proceeded to hike around the western side of Colchuck to a campsite near the small little pond adjacent to the lake. This part of the trail is not well-groomed and includes extensive scrambles. An aggressive field mouse attacked our food supplies as we ate dinner gazing up at Aasgard pass. We hung our food, though, and didn't have any problem overnight. On day 3, we woke up early and hiked down from Colchuck to have breakfast and get water at one of the falls on the way to the Stuart Lake trail. We then proceeded to hike up to Stuart Lake and back (which took about 1 hour each way). The Stuart Lake trail is pristine and easy going. Finally, we ended up at the Colchuck/Stuart Lake trailhead. We had stashed a bike there on day 1 before our trip began and the ride back to Snow Lake trail head was almost all down hill, part rocky dirt road, part paved road and took about 30 minutes with minimal effort except holding the brakes on. A mother and baby brown bear were seen along the dirt road to the paved road. Overall, the trail conditions and weather were perfect. Plenty of water. No rain or wind. Bugs were minimal and we just slept out in our sleeping bags without a tent--just a tarp. We did not, however, encounter any goats (though other hikers that we crossed paths with did). The foilage had not yet started to yellow. Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Fall foliage
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The larches are beginning to turn, and snow has started to fall - autumn is coming on in the Enchantments....
The larches are beginning to turn, and snow has started to fall - autumn is coming on in the Enchantments. Happily, the bugs have been knocked down in a major way, but sadly, the goats had also disappeared (perhaps to a winter range?).
On a through-hike from the Stuart Lake trailhead to the Snow Lakes side, we first saw signs of the changing seasons on Aagard. The waterfall had iced over near the top, and some larches and ground cover had turned yellow. Once in the Upper Enchantments, we were greeted by snowfall and some ice. Most of the larches are still green, but a few are turning. We saw only two goats all day - the first time I'd ever seen so few. None at the top of Aasgard, none through the entire upper and lower zones. It wasn't until lunch at Lake Viviane that two made an appearance above the trail. Do the goats migrate to a winter range? It was still a beautiful day, but it was disappointing not to see the Enchantments' signature residents. Otherwise, it's a great time to go up here. There are still wildflowers blooming. There were almost no bugs, save for a few lazy mosquitoes near Snow Lake - not a single bite in ten hours on the trail. |
Snow Lake. Photo by Alyssa Kreider.
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