Enchantments Pt. 1

For Memorial Day weekend we grabbed our backpacks and headed to near Leavenworth to hike the Enchantment Lakes Loop. This area requires a permit starting June 15 so we wanted to sneak in beforehand. Since we didn't get a ton of snow this winter the timing and weather and snow levels were perfect! We honestly couldn't have gotten any luckier on this hike and on top of that it was beautiful! We hiked up to Colchuck Lake on Saturday afternoon and found a cute campsite tucked into a cliff. Made some food for dinner and sat on a rock looking over the lake at Aasgard Pass which we had to climb up the next day.

 

The photo above shows Aasgard Pass. The orange line is our route. We woke up at about 6:30am, packed up, and started our ascent. It is about a 1,900 ft elevation gain in less than a mile, so steep! Luckily though our family members have gifted us ice axes and crampons so we got to take the snow up which was way easier and faster than the rocky route which had you sliding all over the place. Since we got up early we beat the sun hitting the snow so it was the perfect texture and no ice for our ascent. It took us a little under 2 hours to climb it with lots of peaks back down at where we'd come from, it always impresses us what our legs can do, so neat.

 

 

 

Coming up over the Pass we were now in the Core Enchantments. Up here there are alpine lakes flanked by large rock landscapes and draped in snow. The lakes for the most part were still blanketed in a little snow but where it had melted through their beautiful blue tone was amazing. In the Core Enchantments as you weave among the lakes it feels like you've escaped everything. Another world surrounds you with landscape that you had to work hard to get to be a part of. We smiled a lot up there.

 

Once we ooo'ed and aww'ed a bunch we sat on a sunny rock, melted some snow, and shared some mac&cheese before working our way through all the lakes. We wanted to take our time in the core and soak in the sunshine and actually very warm weather before we descended to the lake we were camping at that night. So up next, the core :)