We decided to have a mellow day of hiking so that we would be ready for our BIG hike the following day, so we chose to hike to Blue Lake in the Northern Cascades. Plus, there was an excessive heat warning and we had a 2:15 drive to Leavenworth. The day started off in Winthrop, WA which is a funky town with a "wild west" theme. Breakfast was eggie sandwiches from The Little Dipper - they were super delicious. We ate them in the car on the way to our hike.
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| The Little Dipper was our stop for breakfast |
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| Fun artwork of the Northern Cascades |
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| Winthrop, WA with it's Wild West theme |
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| Winthrop early in the morning is deserted, but there were lots of people later in the day |
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| A yummy eggie sandwich to start the day |
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| Views as we drove up to Washington Pass |
Our hike to Blue Lake was only 5.5 miles. It had nice switchbacks through big tall evergreen forests. Since it was early, we had the trail to mostly ourselves on the way up.
When we reach Blue Lake, the views just take your breath away - the color of the water, the snow covered mountains, the wildflowers, etc. It is stunning. Blue Lake is stocked with cutthroat trout and the water is so clear that you stand on the short and watch them swim.
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| The rock from where we swam and hung out |
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| The water was very "refreshing" |
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| Trail crew has a good sense of humor - this old, broken down cabin has a sign "closed for restoration" |
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| Views from the "Tarn Loop Trail" from Blue Lake |
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| A small tarn |
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| The mountains in the distance are the Liberty Group and are popular with climbers |
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| Check out how this tree is growing |
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| Almost all of the tree have a big curve at their based formed by the pressure of snow pushing downhill |
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| Our post hike snack of scones from The Little Dipper |
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| Leftover pizza for lunch |
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| Post hike treat of ice cream back in Winthrop - it was almost 100 degrees outside |
After leaving Winthrop, WA, we drove just over 2 hours to Leavenworth, WA. We followed the Methow River joined the Columbia River. The Columbia River in this area is essentially a lake because of dams. The surrounding hills and mountains are super dry, but there are orchards lining the river valley which use the river to irrigate.
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| We drove through so many fruit orchards and stopped at this fruit stand for cherries |
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| The cherries were so sweet! |
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| The land is very dry. The irrigated orchards stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the environment. |
We arrived in Leavenworth in the afternoon and it was SO HOT! It is a town with a Bavarian theme - all of the buildings look super similar to Austria. The town was originally a mill town, but after that ended, it hit hard times. In the 1960s, someone thought it would be a good idea to have it look like a Bavarian town and now it is a bustling tourist town. It probably helps that it is in a great location for outdoor recreation.
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| A soak in the hotel's whirlpool to help our muscles for the next day |
We spent some time prepping for our big hike - The Enchantments. We packed lots of bars, electrolytes, sunscreen, bug goop, iodine tabs, and salty snacks, but kept our packs light by not having to pack much water because there would be water sources the whole route.
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| Dan wanted Mexican food for dinner (against my better judgement) so we went to "South". He regretted the spicy tacos in the morning. |
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| Leavenworth's Bavarian themed buildings |
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Homemade ice cream :)
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After dinner, we went to bed early and set our alarms for 2:45am for an alpine start. Since the temps in town were going to be 105 degrees, we wanted to start early so that our hike would not be a total sufferfest.
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