Snow Lakes and Enchantment Lake

The
Alpine Lakes - I actually had a permit for the 4th of July weekend in the Enchantments. We left on Thursday the 2nd of July. The weather was good, the trail was rough and a little overgrown to Snow, but not bad. There were some places in the rock fields that had to be scrambled around. Be prepared to cross the trail (dam trail') between the lakes with about 4-6 inches of running water (sometimes enough to go over the top of your boots). We camped at Snow and caught some Brook and Cutthroat Trout. The next day, 3rd July, from Snow up to Vivanne (1st Enchantment Lake) it was rough and a little muddy, but the cairns were pretty visible. The thunderstorm and hail made it a little scary because of the lack of cover. The crossing over the drainage of Vivianne was an old rotten log over running water--not a WTA style of bridge! From Vivianne, trail finding was a chore because of the snow and weather conditions--we could not find the cairns, but ended up finding Leprechaun Lake after a little while--and being pretty frightened from a very close lightning strike. We camped near Leprechaun and had a group of 6 goats (2 does, 2 yearlings and 2 kids) hang around for a while. Leprechaun was 50% frozen, Vivianne was 25% frozen, Perfection and above were pretty much frozen solid--but beautiful. Beware of ice bridges because the snow is melting fast. On the way down, things were not too bad until we hit a 2 day old mudslide over part of the Snow Lake trail. The rangers had been through and flagged the way, but it is still rather loose and difficult going. We hauled 4 bags of garbage down that the rangers had collected at Snow (because they had too much to haul it all out themselves!). Overall, it was a wonderful hike with spectacular scenery!