Backpacking to Snow Lakes, The Enchantments, WA

View from the south side of Snow Lake looking west.

The hike to Upper Snow Lake is 7.5 miles one way and ~4500 feet of elevation gain.

We were lucky to see a handful of fluffy mountain goats!

The top of Viviane Falls with McClellan Peak

Driving Time: Seattle (2 hours 25 minutes away), Portland (4 hours, 45 minutes away)
Distance: 15 miles, out and back
Elevation Gain: 4,560 feet
Difficulty: hard
Traffic: not too crowded/some solitude
Dogs allowed: no
Bathrooms: yes, at trailhead

Our close friends were lucky enough to score an Enchantments permit for Snow Lake in late June. We arrived to the Snow Lake parking lot around 7:00am and got one of the last spots (so get there early if you’re going!) and promptly began the grueling climb to Snow Lakes. When I say this hike is uphill, it’s ALLLL the way uphill with very little relief from climbing, be mentally and physically prepared! We made the right choice starting our hike early in the morning because the trail was mostly in the shade compared to our hike back down when we were completely in the sun in the afternoon. The trail begins up a series of switchbacks that take you out of the valley floor and up into the beautiful forests with rushing rivers and great views. The first lake you’ll encounter is Nada Lake and then you’ll climb steeply past up to Snow Lake. There are a lot of campsites along the lake and I highly recommend hiking about halfway around the lake and grabbing a spot with the views of the surrounding peaks! We set up camp, did a little bit of fly fishing and took naps; we were lucky there was a bit of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes off of us. The next day we woke up to still air which meant the mosquitoes were absolutely relentless and we quickly ran out of our deep woods bug spray. We decided to hike up to The Core and check out Lake Viviane which was still covered in snow. We also saw a ton of mountain goats! We then quickly packed up camp while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and began the long descent back to the car. For more information on the lottery system go HERE and for more info on the hike go HERE.

This hike is on the land of the Coast Salish , (Snoqualmie), Tulalip and Skykomish. To learn more about Native Land please explore this resource: https://native-land.ca/ & https://native-land.ca/resources/