My Adventure To The Enchantments

If you have never heard of The Enchantments then you are just like 99% of the people in the world. In fact I did not even know what The Enchantments were until my brother in law approached me and said I have camping passes for The Enchantments do you want to go, and this place is right in my backyard. It is just about 2 hours from my house.

Turns out The Enchantments is one of the most sought after and considered one of the, if not the, most beautiful places in the Cascade Range. "The Enchantments is an area comprising an upper and lower basin and the lakes contained within them in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness about 15 miles southwest of Leavenworth, Washington in the United States." (That little blip is taken from wikipedia. Click Here to read the whole article for more information.)

In order to regulate the amount of people that camp in The Enchantments you must have a permit. This also controls the potential damage to the wilderness that a lot of people could cause. The permits cost a little bit of money but its really not that big a deal.

People travel from all over the world to hike the Enchantments. That is how beautiful and how much of a draw this wilderness has. In fact we are applying again this year to try to get permits to go in again.

I am telling you... The Enchantments was the most beautiful backpacking trip I have ever been on. There are two entrances into the Enchantments. One route takes you on a nearly 5 mile hike to Lake Colchuck and up over Aasgard pass, a .8 mile scramble that takes you up 2,200 feet in elevation. Many people consider Aasgard pass to be dangerous and risky, but we went in August and it was beautiful and not that difficult of a climb. In bad weather conditions Aasgard pass can get very technical, so do be careful. The other route in is via Snow Lake. A 6 mile, 4,100 foot elevation gain hike to Snow Lake and a camp on the beach is enough for most hikers in a single day. Then from Snow Lake it is another 1400 foot elevation gain and some quite steep and often times technical climbing. But every foot of elevation you gain you get closer to the Enchantments and the more beautiful it gets.

Our crew went in the Lake Colchuck route and up over Aasgard pass. The nearly 5 mile hike in to the lake was invigorating and our 30-40 pound packs felt like wings. Reaching Lake Culchuck was our first goal and we stayed the night in one of the many camping spots around the lake. From our camp site we had a front row view of Aasgard pass, she was awaiting to test our tired legs first thing in the morning. We awoke early in the morning and made our way up Aasgard past. The previous day some 40-something year old hikers said they had climbed Aasgard the day before and it took them nearly 3 hours. So we knew what to expect when we started up the pass. Although, we did not think it would take us 3 hours to accomplish after comparing our fitness level to the 40 somethings we talked to the day before (Lets just say they were not in tip top shape). We ended up to be right. It took the younger folks in our crew only about 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete. We had 8 in our group. The ages were 23, two at 24, 25, two at 27, 55 and 60. Yes we invited two of our dads to come along on the hike. They took them a little over 2 hours to accomplish Aasgard pass.

Once we reached the top of Aasgard pass we were standing in the Enchantments at 8,000 feet elevation. We were greeted by three mountain goats, which amazingly let us in to about 10 feet from were they were standing(more on the mountain goats to come.) Ahead of us was a basin of glacier fed lakes, rivers and streams blanketing the ground. Larch trees standing guard around the rivers and streams as they flowed through thousands of shoots and spurs ending at yet another large lake. This amazing site continues on for miles as the terrain continues to get more and more beautiful with every step. Our first night in the Enchantments we spent on the shores of Inspiration Lake. An amazing lake at the bottom of the first step down from the upper basin. We hiked around the lake, found our camping spot, immediately removed our packs and in a collective, "ONE!...... TWO!........ THREE!" six of us leapt off a rock into the glacier water of Inspiration Lake. One word, "Brrr". But oh so refreshing. Later we caught fish and hiked around exploring more of the enchantments and all its beauty.

The following day, 2 of our crew decided to make their way down through the lower enchantments and onto Snow Lake, while six of us decided to hike back up to the upper basin and climb up the peak of Little Annapurna. Little Annapurna is a small shoot up to nearly 9,000 feet elevation. A great day hike and quite a reward awaits a climber willing to make the effort. Just like the real Annapurna in the Himalayas which has 4 distinct and separate summits, Little Annapurna has four rock towers which staircase up to their highest points, about 30 to 40 feet off the ground, which then run flush with a nearly 3,000 foot shear cliff. This is the reward for the climber who summits this peak. The rush of looking over the edge is enough to loose all muscle control of your legs and collapse on the rock. Stunning views of the top of jagged peaks, Mt. Rainier standing firm on the distant horizon, it is truly an amazing site which leaves you in awe and wonder and Gods beautiful creation of Earth.

After descending down Little Annapurna and playing in the streams and shoots of the upper basin for a few hours, we decided to head back down to pack up camp and head down to snow lake. As we descended into the lower Enchantments the beauty never ceased. Around every corner and over every hill an amazing scene straight from a fictional adventure novel awaited us. We could have sworn that we were in the Swiss Alps. We kept saying to each other, "There is no way this is really right in our backyard." The beauty of each lake and plateau blew our minds every time. We only wished that we had a few more nights to take it all in.

A few more nights we did not have, and as we reached the end of the Enchantments we caught a clear view of Snow Lake, our next destination. The lake looked light years away and this being our 3rd day with the 40 pound packs on our backs those light years seemed to look more like an eternity. "How in the world is this trail going to take us down to that lake?" I kept thinking, but onward we pressed. This part of the hike seemed to be the most technical of all. Also the most exciting part as the trail switched back, over streams, up rocks, crossing over log bridges or natural stone steps across a river, mini drops, rock faces, ledges which dropped 100 feet down into a lake, oh and just some normal beautiful trail. Tired and ready for a dip in the lake, we finally reached snow lake. The two that started the day by heading down to snow lake, instead of climbing Little Annapurna, found a beautiful camp site on a beach of snow lake. Hundreds of feet of beach front, a cool dip in the lake and some good fishing awaited our arrival at the campsite. What a great site to see the toilet paper hanging in the trees that marked the trail entrance to the beach and our campsite. We unloaded our packs, took a swim, caught some fish, and fired up the hiking stoves to cook our last Mountain House meal of the trip. How delicious that first Mountain House tasted on day one, but by day three they already start to get a little old and "package" tasting. After 6 of us cleaned and dressed our blisters it was off to the tents for our final night sleep. In the morning we make the 6 mile hike to where one of our cars is parked and our adventure is over.

That 6 miles seemed more like 12 miles. By the end of the trip we just wanted to be done. The motivation to hike in and see the beauty did not exist. In fact we were hiking out of the beauty and into a portion of the forest that was ravaged by a forrest fire just a few years before. Although no beauty awaited us what did await us was the finish line. Once were are done with this hike it is off with our packs, and a short drive to Gustavs in the town of Levenworth for a big old hamberger. After right around 3 hours we cross over the final bridge that leads to our car, but before we head to our car it is one more dip in the river, which feels SOOO amazing. A little bath and we have completed our journey.

So I recently Purchased a new notebook with windows vista on it.  I was looking through the Vista default desktop backgrounds and I found this picture that looked a lot like the enchantments.  So I had my buddy come look and the picture who was on the trip and he thought the same thing, this picture really looks like the Enchantments.  So I decided to look at my enchantment pictures and the very first picture I came across was this one.... 

and here is the Vista Desktop... It turns out that it is the Enchantments.  And my picture is nearly the same angle.