(Click any pic for large photo)

Our son in the Seattle area had some vacation time to burn, so we flew out to visit and do a 3-night trek on a short section of the Pacific Crest Trail. We were told the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area between Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass was beautiful, so we gave it a shot.

We hiked the yellow line on this map, from west to east and back again for a total of about 35 miles.

Access is simple - just drive east from Seattle on I-90 to exit 52. Turn north, under I-90 on NF-9041 and immediately take the first dirt road to the right to the Kendal Katwalk Trail Head parking area. The most difficult thing is finding a parking spot, especially on weekends - there were over 100 cars here when we arrived around noon on Sunday. But, we lucked out as someone was just leaving as we arrived so we snagged a great spot. Since it's such easy access, there is also the concern of car break-ins.
Also, you need to pay to park so my new lifetime "America the Beautiful" pass took care of that!

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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Day: 7.5 miles
Trek: 7.5 miles total
Camp spot: Ridge Lake

Traffic out of Seattle wasn't bad on a Sunday morning, so we reached the trailhead at noon and were on trail by 12:30pm. Cool weather and deeply shaded forest made for nice hiking weather. The continual elevation gain for the first 5+ miles helped warm us up, and keep us warm as we climbed through the woods.

As you can see the long pants and warm jackets were eventually shed. On the climb up, there were a couple small trickles of water, but only one real stream to get water. We started with full water, so we didn't refill until we reached camp.

Once the forest gave way to more alpine meadows and rock fields, the views opened up. One thing we all noticed was the incessant sound of the I-90 freeway that seemed much closer than the miles we had hiked. Low clouds kept the temperature down through the afternoon, with an occasional wisp swirling around a higher peak.

Our climb ended at the Kendall Katwalk where the trail crosses over a saddle from one bowl to another. At this point, the solid rock face was blasted away to creat a passable trail and it's a fun, short stretch with wonderful views into a new, more wild area. Once past this spot, all the freeway noise vanished and we were in the wilderness.
We were definitely not alone, though. I counted 181 people that we passed on the way in - most were day hikers, but a couple were thru-hikers and some were doing the Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass section.

It looked like there would be plenty of rugged mountains ahead of us for the next few days. From here, we only had 2 more relatively flat miles to our first camp around Ridge Lake.

Ridge Lake is highly impacted with camping. I guess there were about a dozen people around this night, but we easily found a nice, well-used spot out of the way at around 6pm.

We did the usual evening tasks of getting water, making and eating dinner, and then storing the food bags. While hiking during the day, with the wind, mosquitoes weren't much of a problem, but they were abundant when things settled down in the evening. So, our mesh shirts were well appreciated.

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Monday, July 21, 2025

Day: 10 miles
Trek: 17.5 miles total
Camp spot: Spectacle Lake

I slept poorly, but the morning still arrived early. It's only dark for about 7 hours this far north at this time of year. Dew was abundant and tent condensation was thick.

The trail traverses a large bowl today, then drops into another bowl, and finally has a signifcant drop to Spectacle Lake. It looks like the first 6 or 7 miles may have no water, so we filled up at Ridge Lake in the fog before heading out. The water was very clear, and nice sized trout could be seen swimming around.

The morning was spectacular, with white clouds and blue sky above and green meadows and trees below. The rising sun provided this interesting halo as we left Ridge Lake.

Along our first hillside traverse, we found many marmots and a few pikas. This marmot, as well as most others, couldn't care less about us passing.

We hiked along the side of Alaska Mountain, above Alaska Lake. The trail itself, being the PCT, is well-used and easy to follow. For the most part, it uses switchbacks to maintain a nice grade as it rises over rocky and rough mountains. The tread is comfortable dirt in the forest, and broken rock above timberline.

At one point, about a mile from Ridge Lake, the trail gives a view to the north over Edds Lake. When we arrived, Edds Lake was blanketed under hundreds of feet of thick fog. The bowl of mountains was holding it in place like a bowl of chowder.

But, to the south, we could see for miles.

Hiking another 1/2 mile, the trail rounds the shoulder of Alaska Mountain and crosses to the north side above Joe Lake with a low saddle between it and Edds Lake. This saddle was holding most of the fog back, but not all of it.

The cooler, heavier air laden with fog was falling over the saddle, spilling from one lake to the next. This was one of my favorite views of this hike.

After dropping down almost 500 feet to the saddle, the trail climbed along the mountain sides again. We could see the trail we would be using on the mountainside over a mile away.

The trail is highlighted with green dots here.

With clear skies, and enough elevation, we had our first view of Mt. Rainier far to the southwest of us. The clear skies didn't last long, though.

Once we reached about 5 miles, the clouds had dropped down to cover the peaks and the colors darkened. It didn't take long for light sprinkles to change over to periods of actual rain with some worrisome thunder thrown in. So, the rest of the day had few views and no photos.

We did cross through the Park Lakes area and then followed the raging PCT river down to Spectacle Lake. Today, we only encountered a few hikers, most of them thru- or section- hiking.

We were fortunate to find a spot at Spectacle Lake which is very popular. We had a window with no rain and set up camp just before another 2-hour rain spell started. After that, we had time to make dinner and then wait until morning.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Day: 10 miles
Trek: 27.5 miles total
Camp spot: Ridge Lake

A bright, sunny morning after a day of rain is glorious!

We took some extra time to let our gear air out a little before starting the hike back the way we had come yesterday.

The brush was still wet from the night, but the sun was encouraging.

Our 1000+ foot climb up from Spectacle went very well, but there wasn't much to see until we broke out of the forest. This is what we missed in the rain yesterday.

The small lakes in the Park Lakes area were beautiful. I believe the colors in the lakebed are caused as the water dries up throughout the summer and the lake reduces to a small stream.

Another long, gradual climb up, still hoping to maybe see a sheep or goat - we never did. But, we saw some fur tufts on brush that may have been goat, or just llamas or marmots, I guess.

Yet another marmot. This one was sunbathing.

Hiking back around Joe Lake. The trail continues from the right to the left, climbing switchbacks that can be seen on the upper-left ridge.

A lot of work has gone into making the PCT, and the many other trails through the mountains. From here, we stopped at our same campspot by Ridge Lake.

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Day: 7.5 miles
Trek: 35 miles total
Camp spot: out

After wonderful weather all day yesterday, we had a repeat this morning. Crossing the Kendall Katwalk again, we had our best view of Rainier.

On the long walk down to the trailhead, we crossed back out of the official wilderness area.

I managed to find a few ripe berries at the lower elevations. Most huckleberries have a few more weeks to ripen, but a sporadic bush or two were ready. There were a few areas of salmonberries that were fun to sample.

Hike On!