The Enchantments in Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness is one of the most sought after backcountry permits in the country. To experience them, you either need to get lucky, or make the grueling, no permit necessary one-way hike in one day. We chose the latter.
The Enchantments are not named as such for naught – they have some of the most spectacular alpine scenery in the country. Most see this coveted area by day hiking to some of the closer lakes (Colchuck Lake is popular), but to really experience the core of the Enchantments, an elusive overnight permit is required. It’s one of the most difficult backcountry permits to get your hands on. But to get around this, you can hike the entirety of the Enchantments in one day without a permit, if you’re willing to take on a grueling 21-mile one-way adventure!
The genesis of this trip started last Christmas when my friends Jeremy, Jeffrey, and I decided to take on the one-day hike. We picked the first weekend in August with hopes of a snow-free trail and perfect weather. We also booked a small place in the quaint little town of Leavenworth as a base. The girls opted out of the hike this time to stay and explore the town.
Jeremy arranged a 6:30am shuttle ride from the finishing trail head to the starting one, so we were up early on Saturday. After the bumpy ride up to the Colchuck Lake trailhead we started hiking around 7am. The trail starts out fairly flat and follows Mountaineer Creek for a couple miles, but after the second crossing it starts to head up a steep ridge to Colchuck Lake. After 3.8 miles we reached Colchuck, a stunning alpine lake with blue green water.
The trail then wraps around the lake and begins the brutally steep ascent up towards Colchuck Pass. It might have been the steapest “trail” I’ve ever been on – 2200 ft of elevation gain in just over a mile. I would classify it as more Class 2 than Class 1.
The good thing about steep trails: the views get nicer faster.
When we finally began to crest the hill, we were surround by the Dragontail Peaks with glaciers hanging underneath them.
A mountain goat even decided to pose on a rocky outcropping for us. Can you spot the goats in these photos?
We took a quick break to wait for our entire group to reach the top, then walked just a bit further to Tranquil Lake where we ate lunch and filtered water. We spent about an hour soaking up the stark alpine landscape framed by Dragon Tail Peak, Witches Tower and Little AnnaPurna.
The next four miles are the “Core” of the Enchantments and provide some of the finest and most pristine alpine scenery.
We walked a little slower after lunch, mostly for purposes of photo documentation. There were so many little lakes with creeks flowing through the rocky tree-less landscape.
Between Isolation lake and Inspiration Lake we had to cross a giant snow bank that was beginning to fracture – a sign of just how extreme the climate is.
Just before heading down the steep hill to Inspiration Lake was a view point to the south, with Crystal Lake in the foreground. I thought it was interesting how a small portion of the basin drained to the south, but most of it drained into Snow Lake to the west.
Jeff’s favorite lake of the hike was Inspiration Lake. It was a deep blue color framed by steep cliffs for most of the shoreline. Upon approach it looked the most “fishy” as well, so Jeff and I kept our eyes peeled for any sign of life. We spotted one 5″ trout in the shallows as we walked the shoreline! Alas, we didn’t have our fishing gear for this trek.
Inspiration Lake 
The next lake was Perfection Lake and it was my favorite of the entire Core region. It sits right at treeline surrounded by meadows and larch forests.
The northern end of the lake was extremely shallow as an inlet creek flowed through the meadow pictured above. I found a lupine on the banks of the inlet creek, which I thought was quite rare for this elevation.
Just a little further down the trail we walked through a nice stand of them too!
The southern end of the lake got progressively deeper and views of McClellan Peak opened up.
The outlet of Perfection Lake was a tiny waterfall into the equally small Sprite Lake. At this point we had been hiking a little slow through the Core region because I had been taking so many pictures, so I put the camera away for a while so we could pick up the pace.
We walked by Leprechaun and Viviane lake before descending a long and steep hill to Snow Lake. This hill was extremely slow going because like Colchuck Pass it was steep and required hands in a lot of places. As some points the trail even went across a giant granite slope. It was intimidating walking across slippery steep rock, but we were careful and made it to the shores of Snow Lake.
At this point we were back in the Mountain Hemlock forest, so the views weren’t very dramatic and the trail tended to be a bit monotonous. Upper Snow Lake is huge and acts as the main water source for the town of Leavenworth. The hike around the lake never seemed to end because it was starting to get hot, the forest looked the same and we were getting tired. Our entire group took a break at the outlet from upper Snow Lake to lower Snow Lake. We snacked and drank water and talked about the plan for the rest of the way down.
Some of the group wanted to stop and swim at Nada Lake, but all of the people in my car wanted to just keep going to the trailhead. The trail down to Nada was steep again and slowed our pace, but it had the last really nice views of the trip.
It reminded me of Twin Lakes in Mammoth a little, because it got pretty narrow in the middle. After this I didn’t take any more pictures because we started hiking as fast as we possibly could to get back to the trailhead. It was a long way down and the trail never seemed to end, but we finally crossed Icicle Creek right at 7pm marking the end of our journey. We were absolutely beat.
The hike was a 12 hour, 21 mile journey through some of the prettiest alpine landscape in Washington. We gained over 5200 feet in elevation and lost even more than that. This was the longest hike I’d ever done and it tested my endurance. I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt through about 15 miles, but the last 6 were brutal.
Writing this post and looking back at the pictures have been cathartic though – it has helped me remember the positives. I will remember my Enchantments through hike for the amazing scenery and more importantly time spent with friends. Thanks for organizing Jeremy and thanks for coming along Jeff!
