Snow Lake #38

I have been in the mood to do a long hike for a while, but nothing similar to Mount Dickerman. One that I couldn't bring the kids or the dog on but I didn't know what hike I wanted to do. Then one day a few weeks ago I was looking through facebook and saw a picture of Gem Lake. I decided to look it up and see what it was like. After reading about it I decided that it was the hike for me. I asked my friend L if she wanted to come, she said yes of course and we set the date and made the plans. But we didn't go to Gem Lake, we went to Snow Lake instead because the best laid plans can always be waylaid. Snow Lake and Gem lake are both off of I-90  at Alpental,  you will drive past houses to get to the parking lot which is very large and was very full for a rainy day, which was rather surprising. I don't recommend this trail if you have any sort of ankle problems, unless you have a very good pair of hiking boots. We approached the trail and saw that since we were entering the Alpine Lakes Area we had to register.

So L registered us and we were off.

 We climbed up a few stairs that lead to a nice slight incline to come to these views, snow on the hills, (which you can't really see in the pictures.) and to colors that were amazing!

The trail comes upon a stream and a tiny waterfall to cross.

I found this leaf in the water and decided to try my hand at photography. This leaf picture is one of my favorite pictures.

Seriously how can you not enjoy the colors?

And the colors on this vine maple!!! It did my soul good to be out and enjoy the colors.

The trail then becomes a scree field, which there are a few of these that you have to go through on this hike.

(This picture was where L, my mother in law and 2 kiddos turned around years ago, because it was taking too long with a 2 year old that had to stop and climb over every rock that she came across didn't leave a bunch of daylight to go all of the way to Snow Lake.) Shortly after the tree you get to walk through this, which again the picture doesn't do it justice.

 The trail then becomes more uphill and turned more into mud because it really started to rain.

 There are trail signs to tell you where to go, you want to stay right to get to Snow Lake.

I was pretty excited to see this pika! So stinkin cute!

 After the rocks you get to hike up some stairs, which made L and I think of Lake Dorothy and all of its 590 stairs. ( L counted them as we were coming back from Lake Dorothy.)

Almost there!

  Now to hike down to the lake.

At this point the rain really started to fall and it even started snowing and we were suprised to hear a group of people screaming and then there was splashing as they were jumping into the lake. We ran into a guy that told us the lake was warm enough to go swimming in, and at first we thought he was joking, but he wasn't. The trail then takes you around the lake and down. But the trail was pretty much a stream

especially the stairs as you can see but we were so wet we didn't care if we walked through the water

 

leading you to this pool and waterfall. Which you have to cross the rocks with water running over them to get to the other side of the trail. At this point you will see sections of areas that have signs and fenced off areas that say "stay off restoration area". Please obey the signs and stay on the trail.

You then come upon these wooden stairs which lead you down

and along the edge of the lake. Which this section of trail becomes very narrow and if you fall you go straight into the lake.

 The trail then once again starts to go uphill and takes you on these cool rock steps.

Then down you go down through this. You can see how foggy and misty it was.

Follow the sign and stay left. It really started to pour rain and there was so much mud.

You are now at the far side of Snow Lake. If you go down this section of trail which is rather steep it will take you to Gem Lake.

We didn't go any further because of how wet and cold we were.

The hike back to the car was faster and still just as nice and enjoyable, expect for having to block my face so the lady carrying the umbrella didn't poke my eye out. Which there were 4 people carrying umbrellas, who carries an umbrella hiking? L and I were rather floored at that one.

This is the only picture that I could get that showed some accumulation of snow, not a lot of it but enough to know that it was cold enough to snow.

This was such a fun hike despite the weather, because it was pretty easy and the colors were amazing and it was great to get out and spend some time in good company.