larch madness

Everyone knows I love to hike and backpack, so for years now I've been asked "Have you done the Enchantments yet?" The answer was always no, but this weekend that changed - we not only went to the Enchantments, but were greeted with near-perfect autumn weather and witnessed the peak of the larches changing color. It left me kind of speechless - never seen anything like it.

Larches are deciduous conifers - they look like any old pine tree, but their green needles turn gold in autumn and fall off. It's quite the sight - imagine a forest of trees that look like they're straight out of a Dr. Suess story.

Backdrop all of this against the Enchantments, a portion of the central Cascades that is dominated by high alpine lakes, granite towers, craggy peaks, and glaciers, all at a high elevation that's a bit rare around here. Simply stunning.

A few of us hit the trail this weekend and hiked through the Enchantments, parking cars at both ends of the trail. The hike was 18 miles, which was tough enough - but couple that with the waning days of autumn, a 4500 ft. climb up to the Enchantment Basin, and a 6000 ft. descent to our car at the other end, and you now have a recipe for something that's truly physically and mentally challenging.

This was Adrienne's inaugural hike into the mad mad world of John Meyer-style hiking. We left Seattle at 2:30am, started hiking in the dark by headlamp at 5:45am, finished in the dark with headlamps on again at 9pm on the dot, and were back in our beds at midnight. We made it with minimal struggle - but today, we've hardly left the couch.

This is Colchuck Lake, the first destination of the hike. From here, you hike around the lake and up the bare rock in the back of this photo up into the clouds.

Starting to get our first glimpse of the larches, mixed in with other regular 'ol pine trees.

AJ models next to a larch changing from green to gold.

Into the larch forest we go...

Getting some altitude behind the lake.

 Up we go - 2,000 ft vertical elevation gain in less than one mile. That's alot.

Grey and gold.

We saw a big mountain goat near the top of the pass.

As soon as we got to the top, we busted through the clouds and then they burned off in about 5 minutes to reveal blue blue blue skies!

Hikers among the alpine lakes.

Our team!

The upper basin of the Enchantments.

 Alpine lakes and larches.

A&J on the mountain!

Tristan takes in the larchness of the scene.

 Blue and gold.

This is my favorite photo of the entire trip. The fall colors were simply incredible.

One of the last alpine lakes before the long, long downhill slog back to the car.