I was in search of solitude and fall colors for the last overnight backpacking trip of the season. My first choice was Larch and Cup Lakes but I was deterred by the trail reports of required bushwhacking thru the Chiwakum Creek Trail and did not want to hike 8 miles of private road via Alpine Lakes High Camp. I decided to access the Scottish Lakes via Lake Ethel, and plan for Lake Donald and Lake Julius if time and energy allowed.
The drive wasn't bad, and there were just two other cars at the trailhead. We didn't run into anybody else until our way back down the next day, when we ran into a small party of four and their three dogs. We saw another couple pull into the trailhead while we were on our way out. Definitely delivered on the solitude!
The other trail reports are still accurate when it comes to downed trees. Nothing that difficult to go over or under, but there were a lot of them. The incline is steep and relentless until you're close to Lake Ethel. We decided to camp there overnight and skip out on Lake Julius and Donald due to the impending loss of sunlight.
Fall colors were pretty, the ground cover in the clearcut section was beautiful and you could see across to the other mountainsides where pockets of larches and aspens (? hard to tell from a distance) were clustered. I could imagine this section is not pleasant during the summertime, as there is no shade relief for a while and I bet it is buggy as you get closer to the lakes. Not as many larches at Lake Ethel as there are at other alpine lakes, but there was still a good show. Fall seems like the right time to visit this place! We encountered snow around the last mile of the trail, and maybe an inch or two of accumulation at the lake itself.
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