Ancient Lakes

April 6th, 2008: Ancient Lakes

A land of lakes ringed by sculpted shores, towering cliffs and slot canyons; cascading waterfalls studding noisy streams rushing from one lake to the next; beautiful blue skies made musical by birdsong – my long wait to visit this magical place is finally over.

My day started with a 4:45am start from the house, careful driving over slippery Snoqualmie Pass had me at the trailhead 2.5hrs later. There was an early morning chill in the air so I bundled up as I headed off.

Right off the bat my senses were assaulted by the perfume of sagebrush and music from numerous birds – everything seemed vibrant and so alive! While the Ancient Lakes basin was only 2-2.5mi away, the going was extremely slow: since this was my first time in the area, I felt like a kid in a candy store. The camera was out within 10min of starting the hike and progress ground down to a crawl: a photo here, a photo there; stick my nose in some sagebrush here, peer at some reeds there. As I took the fork towards the Ancient Lakes basin I was greeted by a beautiful waterfall dropping down from the coulee wall on my left, glowing as it was backlit by the morning sun.

Soon after, I was in the Ancient Lakes basin ringed by coulee walls. The entire area seemed akin to a particularly curvaceous lady: scalloped hills ringing deep blue/green lakes with smoothly rounded shores, each one more beautiful than the next, enticing me onward and inward. The tiara crowning the basin was a magnificent waterfall thundering into the farthest lake. As I climbed up the hillside beside the waterfall views of the entire basin laid out before me were stunning.

From the top of the Ancient Lakes basin I headed alongside a stream, lined by reeds and quaint little pools. Then, a short climb up beside another beautiful waterfall had me at Judith Pool. From Judith Pool I headed east over to H Lake. This being my first time in the area, I was dismayed a bit when I glimpsed a few cars parked close to H Lake (evidently another way to access Ancient Lakes). I quickly abandoned my initial plan to loop past Quincy and Burke Lakes towards Dusty Lake (my second objective of the day), which would have taken me past yet more civilization. Instead, I headed back west wrapping around H Lake towards some pools, nestled in canyons and separated from the main Ancient Lakes region by basalt cliffs.

Then it was back towards the Ancient Lakes basin, as I picked up a faint trail. Soon however, this trail intersected a more substantial one which I took since it seemed to be heading south towards Dusty Lake. Unfortunately, pretty soon this trail began to move away from the heading I wanted (I could see Quincy Lake in the distance), so I left it and cut cross-country until I finally reached the cliffs on the eastern end of Dusty Lake.

Dusty Lake was quite spectacular and I was tempted to head down to it, but was by now running a bit behind my turn-around time, so that pretty much was that. I returned to the Ancient Lakes basin and was at my car by 2:15pm. The drive back was a nightmare as I was stuck for more than an hour at Snoqualmie Pass due to a snow-slide.

Cumulative stats:

• Distance: ~10mi

• Elevation gain: ~1000ft

• Hiking time: 6.75hrs

• Total trip time: 13hrs

• Wildlife seen: 1 fox, numerous birds