The Enchantment Lakes (actual)

Here's a slideshow of the first part of our Washington (state) trip last week. We were in the Central Cascade mountains staying in our friend Aaron's family's cabin in Leavenworth, which laughably fancies itself a mini-Bavaria, as you can see from the flower-bedecked balcony in the first picture. The town square is the Marktplatz, flanked by the Hofbrauhaus and very many Geschenkslaeden. The slideshow is really about our hike to the Enchantment Lakes though, which may be the most beautiful place I've seen in this country. The full route takes you steadily, but not painfully upward for a few miles, winds around Colchuk lake, then takes you steeply (yes painfully this time!) up a one-mile "scramble" to a kind of high, flat plateau. Five or six dark blue, glacier and spring-fed lakes spread out atop this plateau and the trail meanders through them for a few miles before beginning the descent on the far side of the ridge.

Click on the image for the slides.


The yellow trees are larch pines, one of the few trees in the evergreen family to go through autumnal color changes. The white masses on and between the peaks are glaciers. We look so happy in these pictures! Who would guess that I'm losing my two big toenails all the while?!! Let me know if anyone wants to see pictures of that.