Snoqualmie Lake — Saturday, Apr. 24, 2004

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

The alpine lakes are starting to open up – well sort of. To get to the TH follow the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River road (FS56) for 15 or so miles. The road is in adequate shape – I have seen it much, much worse. A fork in the road is encountered, go straight ahead on the Taylor River road (I think) to road end at a bridge. Actually the road was not gated at the bridge but at least one vehicle had problems by trying to go farther. This trip starts out as a road walk. In about .5 mi there is a fork in the road, take the right fork along the river. We had to wake up a hungover camper sleeping in the middle of the trail. The sound of the river is wonderful. The slope of the road is such that you can really move out for the first 5 miles with some mandatory stops at the rushing creeks and waterfalls. The unbridged creek crossings were easily navigated with dry feet and the bridge crossings have great waterfalls to enjoy. We also noticed a small rock cairn marking a side trail. More on that later. At 5 miles there are trail markers – right to Nordrum Lake and left to Snoqualmie Lake. Our goal was to get as far as Bear or Deer Lake but that was not to be. The trail winds up through forest and has not been maintained for a while. There are 3 or so blowdowns on the trail that require minor detours or climbing or crawling. At one blowdown the trail is obscured and Devil’s club is doing a good job of covering the trail. Farther up, there are some rock cairns to mark the trail through creeks and rocky areas where there are many bad options to follow and only one good one. We were within 50 vertical feet of Snoqualmie Lake when we hit deep and fairly rotten snow. Two people continued on to Snoqualmie Lake and 3 of us enjoyed lunch with a gorgeous view of the waterfall and creek rushing from the lake outlet. On the way back we started to meet the throngs of people also checking out the trail and waterfalls. As we passed the rock cairn on the road walk part of the trail, the same two “energizer bunnies” that went on to Snoqualmie Lake decided to dash up the side trail to Lipsy Lake. The pictures we saw later confirmed that this short side trip was well worth the extra 3 to 4 minutes it took them to get to the lake and the waterfall which was cascading down the rock slabs from above.