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The Enchantment Lakes is a collection of extraordinarily scenic sub-alpine and alpine lakes in central Washington. The lakes are the prized possession of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and the journey to visit them is widely regarded as one of the best backpacking trips in the state.
In a typical year, the trail through the Enchantments is only accessible to the average hiker from early August through early October. Outside of this short window of time, steep snowfields will make travel in the Enchantments difficult if not dangerous. We chose early September to minimize the amount of snow that we would encounter. It can snow any day of the year in the Enchantments, but the weather was perfect for our three day visit.
Permits are required to camp in the Enchantments, and they are not easy to come by. For three straight years in a row, I submitted a lottery application with mid-week entry dates, thinking we stood a fair chance of scoring permits for our group. We were thrilled when we received the congratulations email this year! We were awarded our top choice of dates as well—dates that allowed us to also squeeze in a concert at “The Gorge”, a Red Sox game in Seattle, and 2 days in Mount Rainier National Park into our trip itinerary.
We chose the Snow Lakes Trailhead as our starting point, even though that is the opposite of what most people do. The trailhead is off Icicle Rd, a paved road that is only minutes from the town of Leavenworth. The somewhat dull views from the road and trailhead do not give the slightest inkling of what’s to come.
The Snow Lakes Trail climbed gradually with good footing all the way to Nada Lake (5.5 miles) and then to the two Snow Lakes (6.5 miles). Both Nada Lake and the Snow Lakes are well below treeline and are mostly surrounded by tall balsam fir trees. Snow Lakes has some views of the mountains that lie ahead, but they are limited. There are some good campsites close to the trail along each of these lakes.
While the trail was relatively easy to the Snow Lakes, the climb up to Lake Viviane required light scrambling and a fair amount of elevation gain. Lake Viviane is the first lake in the Lower Enchantments Zone. This is a sub-alpine gem, and a good start to the scenic splendor that is yet to come. This is where we chose to camp for the first night since we were pretty beat after the 9.4 miles and 5,500ft of elevation gain required to reach the lake. We spotted at least four campsites on the shores of this lake. The primo spot—right on the shore of the lake—was already taken by another group, so we took a site that was 30 feet above the lake and surrounded by granite, which offered decent protection from the wind.
It wasn’t long before the most famous residents of the Enchantments made an appearance. Within just ten minutes of our arrival, a very healthy and habituated white mountain goat spun by for a look at our campsite. Soon, we had four or five of the goats making random appearances every hour or so. This lasted throughout the night. They were completely unafraid of humans, mainly because they absolutely love human urine. Yep—mountain goats will go so far as to rip up the dirt just to get a lick of pee. Whenever you try to go the bathroom, they will start to become semi-aggressive and get within 8 or 10 feet of you.
We woke up early the next morning and cooked breakfast on a flat rock that offered views back down into the Snow Lakes valley. It was truly a great place to start the day.
After breakfast, we began our trek through the Lower Enchantment Zone. It only took 15 minutes to reach Leprechaun Lake, another pretty near-alpine lake that also had a few excellent campsite offerings along its shores.
From Leprechaun Lake until the end of the Enchantment Zone, the scenery is consistently gorgeous. Nobody could put their cameras away for more than 10 minutes because there were outstanding new views around every single corner. It suddenly made perfect sense as to why this place is so well-regarded.
Once thing we all got a kick out of on this trip was the “outhouses”. None of us had ever seen outhouses like this—they were just wooden boxes with a hole cut into them. They would have been uncomfortable, except for the fact that the USFS strategically placed about half of them in areas that offered outstanding views. I highly doubt you’ve ever done your business anywhere else that offered such a fine view as the one seen from the “outhouse” near Lake Viviane. Some of the spur trails to these toilets offered spectacular views en route—views that could not be seen from the main trail. It sounds odd, but I strongly feel that all visitors should take every spur trail to every toilet in the Enchantment Zone.
The next lake along the route is Sprite Lake. Shortly after that is Perfection Lake, which certainly lives up to its bold name, with its absolutely gorgeous craggy mountains rising high above the lake. On the northern edge of the lake, a 0.4 mile spur trails climbs moderately to Prusik Pass—a highly worthwhile detour that offered distinct post-card worthy views in two directions.
In a typical year, the trail through the Enchantments is only accessible to the average hiker from early August through early October. Outside of this short window of time, steep snowfields will make travel in the Enchantments difficult if not dangerous. We chose early September to minimize the amount of snow that we would encounter. It can snow any day of the year in the Enchantments, but the weather was perfect for our three day visit.
Permits are required to camp in the Enchantments, and they are not easy to come by. For three straight years in a row, I submitted a lottery application with mid-week entry dates, thinking we stood a fair chance of scoring permits for our group. We were thrilled when we received the congratulations email this year! We were awarded our top choice of dates as well—dates that allowed us to also squeeze in a concert at “The Gorge”, a Red Sox game in Seattle, and 2 days in Mount Rainier National Park into our trip itinerary.
We chose the Snow Lakes Trailhead as our starting point, even though that is the opposite of what most people do. The trailhead is off Icicle Rd, a paved road that is only minutes from the town of Leavenworth. The somewhat dull views from the road and trailhead do not give the slightest inkling of what’s to come.
The Snow Lakes Trail climbed gradually with good footing all the way to Nada Lake (5.5 miles) and then to the two Snow Lakes (6.5 miles). Both Nada Lake and the Snow Lakes are well below treeline and are mostly surrounded by tall balsam fir trees. Snow Lakes has some views of the mountains that lie ahead, but they are limited. There are some good campsites close to the trail along each of these lakes.
While the trail was relatively easy to the Snow Lakes, the climb up to Lake Viviane required light scrambling and a fair amount of elevation gain. Lake Viviane is the first lake in the Lower Enchantments Zone. This is a sub-alpine gem, and a good start to the scenic splendor that is yet to come. This is where we chose to camp for the first night since we were pretty beat after the 9.4 miles and 5,500ft of elevation gain required to reach the lake. We spotted at least four campsites on the shores of this lake. The primo spot—right on the shore of the lake—was already taken by another group, so we took a site that was 30 feet above the lake and surrounded by granite, which offered decent protection from the wind.
It wasn’t long before the most famous residents of the Enchantments made an appearance. Within just ten minutes of our arrival, a very healthy and habituated white mountain goat spun by for a look at our campsite. Soon, we had four or five of the goats making random appearances every hour or so. This lasted throughout the night. They were completely unafraid of humans, mainly because they absolutely love human urine. Yep—mountain goats will go so far as to rip up the dirt just to get a lick of pee. Whenever you try to go the bathroom, they will start to become semi-aggressive and get within 8 or 10 feet of you.
We woke up early the next morning and cooked breakfast on a flat rock that offered views back down into the Snow Lakes valley. It was truly a great place to start the day.
After breakfast, we began our trek through the Lower Enchantment Zone. It only took 15 minutes to reach Leprechaun Lake, another pretty near-alpine lake that also had a few excellent campsite offerings along its shores.
From Leprechaun Lake until the end of the Enchantment Zone, the scenery is consistently gorgeous. Nobody could put their cameras away for more than 10 minutes because there were outstanding new views around every single corner. It suddenly made perfect sense as to why this place is so well-regarded.
Once thing we all got a kick out of on this trip was the “outhouses”. None of us had ever seen outhouses like this—they were just wooden boxes with a hole cut into them. They would have been uncomfortable, except for the fact that the USFS strategically placed about half of them in areas that offered outstanding views. I highly doubt you’ve ever done your business anywhere else that offered such a fine view as the one seen from the “outhouse” near Lake Viviane. Some of the spur trails to these toilets offered spectacular views en route—views that could not be seen from the main trail. It sounds odd, but I strongly feel that all visitors should take every spur trail to every toilet in the Enchantment Zone.
The next lake along the route is Sprite Lake. Shortly after that is Perfection Lake, which certainly lives up to its bold name, with its absolutely gorgeous craggy mountains rising high above the lake. On the northern edge of the lake, a 0.4 mile spur trails climbs moderately to Prusik Pass—a highly worthwhile detour that offered distinct post-card worthy views in two directions.
