Melakwa Lake, Denny Creek — Saturday, Jun. 23, 2012

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

So, we got to the Denny Creek trailhead and the sun was peaking through. It was a beautiful day. The first mile of the hike is very pretty and lush. You go underneath the I-90 freeway which is really cool. There's a big across a creek/waterfall feature. During this first mile of the hike, the trail was pretty much 99% snow-free, maybe just a few tiny patches of snow left over here and there--easy to manuever around. At about 3/4 of a mile or a mile into the hike you reach a creek that used to have a bridge 3 years ago but doesn't anymore. Luckily Mother Nature has created her own bridge--there were several logs kind of dammed in this spot along the creek and we were able to walk across the logs to the other side. From mile 1 to mile 2 the trail remained mostly, 95% clear, of snow. Closer to the 2 mile mark you reach Keekwulee Falls, a HUGE waterfall. Around this area there were 1 or 2 small banks of snow to negotiate, but still not that bad. There are also other waterfalls we saw in this area. The mountains surrounding the area are very pretty as well. Lots of amazing views up here. After the first 2 miles of the hike and passing the waterfall, the trail still remained mostly clear of snow for a while. It wasn't until about 2.5 or 3 miles into the hike that we reached considerable snow. At this point it started to prove difficult finding the trail. We followed close to the river and went through a valley that was probably still covered in a solid foot of snow. At the end of the valley we turned left and went up a steep hill in the snow. This proved to be a BIG MISTAKE. First of all, I think the correct trail would have been to turn right at the end of the valley instead of left (we later saw some backpackers going that way that looked like they really knew what they were doing). Secondly this really steep ascent on the snow started to become really slippery and dangerous so we turned around. It was a good thing we turned around because it all of a sudden started hailing on us. We got caught in a severe thunderstorm going back. On the way back down we saw a couple trees down that weren't down before that looked fresh...we realized that lightning must have just struck these trees. There were flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder every few minutes. So, something to keep in mind a couple blowdowns or downed trees along the trail now--but very easy to get around.