Clara and Marion Lakes — Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014

Central Washington > Wenatchee

I didn't realize that there was such a short larch hike that could offer so much solitude. I squeezed in two short hikes on Sunday, and used up the available daylight to enjoy this one. If I had started earlier, I still would've gotten back to the car at the same time. There are some good options for cross-country exploration if you don't mind walking on scree. The landscape is quite different than I've seen before - I'm used to seeing scree on the side of a hill, but here it formed lumpy mounds and there were larches growing in the middle of it. The trail itself was decent. It was steep at times, and there were a handful of unmarked social trails to confused you. Having a map and compass helped a little, but what was more helpful was having some extra time to explore and having experience guessing which trail is the right one. The description for Marion Lake is quite oversimplified and not sufficient to get to the second lake.