Lake Twentytwo - Lake 22, Lake 22

Hiked Lake 22 today. It was a great day with sun and temps in the 60s. When we first started out we saw a lot of waterfalls--and the waterfalls are really running right now from all the snow melt. In some places the water can be several inches deep on the trail, particularly near the waterfalls, so keep this in mind. Nothing major, just FYI.

As we got higher we didn't hit snow until about the time of the ridge top views. We started hitting patchy snow just before the first ridge top views, but the snow didn't become consistant until the end of the ridge top views at which point it was a very slushy snow, a little slippery but well packed by previous hikers and so nothing too dangerous. The ridge views were great...the mountains you can see from the ridges have lots of snow on them right now and so are really pretty.

The last part of the high had a lot of snow but is well compacted and one can tell there hasn't been any fresh snow in a long time. There is probably still about 4 feet of snow at the lake, but you won't sink because it is compacted.

Today, we were the first ones to go around the lake. We weren't able to use the boardwalk as it is still obscured by the snow. We could hear the thundering of avalanches coming down from Mt Pilchuck and the surrounding mountains but the avalanches were high enough up to not constitute any real danger down at the lake.

Again it was a beautiful day, and the mountains around the lake and the waterfall and mountain views on the way up are breath-taking!