The Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA
Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:51 pm
Did a three-day backpack to the popular Enchantments area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in central Washington last weekend. This area receives a ton of traffic and so backpacking is strictly regulated with quotas for each of the entry zones. Most permits are snatched up through a lottery held in the spring, but I got lucky and happened to find one permit available on the Recreation.gov site about a week before we were planning to head up to the mountains.
Went up on a Sunday, so I was a little amazed to count 62 backpackers and 46 dayhikers coming down the trail as we labored up. We passed an additional 5 backpackers on our way, and saw 34 others camped at the big lake at the top of our permitted zone (couldn't camp past the boundary). A reminder that I wasn't in Kansas (er, the isolated High Sierra) anymore.
Still, the high visitation is warranted. The core Enchantments are indeed beautiful, and very reminiscent of many areas of the Sierra.
Another reminder that I wasn't in the Sierra anymore was that the trailhead started at the lofty elevation of 1,200 feet. The highest point of our backpack was Aasgard Pass at 7,841 feet. So even though the Cascades don't come close to reaching the absolute elevations of the Sierra, 6,600+ feet of elevation gain in two days isn't exactly a stroll through a meadow.
Saw a few of the ubiquitous mountain goats while we were up there. Apparently they've learned to follow hikers around so they can lick up their urine and get some extra salt that way. Hmm, a plan was hatched to try to capture and tame one so we'd have a new pack goat.
Even managed to catch a few feisty cutthroat, too.
Just when I was starting to think that I'd been spoiled by our easy-to-catch Sierra trout.
Thanks for looking!
Went up on a Sunday, so I was a little amazed to count 62 backpackers and 46 dayhikers coming down the trail as we labored up. We passed an additional 5 backpackers on our way, and saw 34 others camped at the big lake at the top of our permitted zone (couldn't camp past the boundary). A reminder that I wasn't in Kansas (er, the isolated High Sierra) anymore.
Still, the high visitation is warranted. The core Enchantments are indeed beautiful, and very reminiscent of many areas of the Sierra.
Another reminder that I wasn't in the Sierra anymore was that the trailhead started at the lofty elevation of 1,200 feet. The highest point of our backpack was Aasgard Pass at 7,841 feet. So even though the Cascades don't come close to reaching the absolute elevations of the Sierra, 6,600+ feet of elevation gain in two days isn't exactly a stroll through a meadow.
Saw a few of the ubiquitous mountain goats while we were up there. Apparently they've learned to follow hikers around so they can lick up their urine and get some extra salt that way. Hmm, a plan was hatched to try to capture and tame one so we'd have a new pack goat.
Even managed to catch a few feisty cutthroat, too.
Just when I was starting to think that I'd been spoiled by our easy-to-catch Sierra trout.
Thanks for looking!
