Snow Lake 1.3.15

After a couple of days of skiing in less than stellar conditions, we took a break and instead decided to head back to work on Friday. With no new snow since we had last been skiing, we were looking for some other fun activity on Saturday given the decent weather forecast of no rain. Sara and Matt had planned to snowshoe to Snow Lake with some friends, so we tagged along and invited a few more. We picked up the rest of our crew at the East Gate park and ride at 8am and headed for the pass. We had to park in the main Alpental parking lot as they had blocked off the normal upper lot we'd leave from. The parking lot was fairly full with more cars coming, it'd be a busy day on the trail!

Our crew heading to the trail

We distributed gear and headed up the road to get to the trail. It was mostly overcast but the sun was trying to poke through the clouds a little bit. There was decent snow coverage which was nice. We hiked in just our boots for over half way to Source Lake before we finally stopped to put on our snowshoes. In reality it probably would have been fine putting them on right away but for whatever reason we had decided to tromp along instead. We got a bit off track following a trail high but didn't miss the correct turn by more than a minute. Heading back toward the creek, we wound our way through the snow covered trees. Even without blue skies and sunshine, it was a pretty day to be out in the snowy mountains. We found our way to Source Lake, regrouped, and headed up the trail.

Looking towards The Tooth

After a few switchbacks, we took a right and headed up the ridge overlooking Snow Lake. The sun was lighting up the clouds in an interesting way and we had a better than expected view of the surrounding mountains. We continued along the ridge through all of the snow, settling on a local high point overlooking the lake. We stopped there for food and drink. Sara and Matt brought a Jetboil and hot chocolate to share with the group. After everyone had gotten something to eat and drank their celebratory drink of choice, we packed up and headed down, hoping to warm up a bit.

Snowy ridge above Snow Lake

We followed our track back off of the ridge but instead of switchbacking down the trail, we went straight down plunge stepping with a few somersaulting their way down portions. Once back at Source Lake we continued on the trail, taking any lower trail options we came upon to avoid getting off track higher up as we did on the way in. We met some friends heading in to get a few turns. Before too long we were back in the upper parking lot and heading for the cars. After some careful maneuvering in the overfilled parking lot, we made it out with a delicious lunch stop at the Issaquah Brew Pub on our way home. A relaxed but fun adventure to get out in the mountains and enjoy the snowy scenery.

Overlooking Snow Lake

For GPS track, see Google Map

Winter trail to Snow Lake