Alpine Lakes Wilderness - The Enchantments

The end of August 2013, 7 of our group of close friends were privileged enough to spend 5 days and 4 nights backpacking the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We started at the Stuart/Colchuck Lake Trailhead and made our way through the loop to the Snow Lakes Trailhead, only about 20.5 miles but treacherous and grueling.

I did a lot of research reading others blogs and reviews of the hike before we set out, so I was psyched up for what was in store for us.

The first day we hiked from the Eightmile Trailhead to Colchuck Lake. Swam in the lake before dinner and then rested up for our approach to & hike up Aasgard Pass in the morning.

Beginning of Day 2

The approach to Aasgard Pass from Colchuck Lake is a bit treacherous, big boulders to climb over, under and through but we made it! And this is what it looked like from the bottom. I am pretty sure it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life!

Day 2 - Aasgard Pass (2,300' gain over 0.8 miles)

At the top, you first come to the Upper Basins. They are full of rocks, little vegetation and it looks absolutely surreal. There was still quite a bit of snow in areas even being late August.

We set up camp in the upper basin, night #2 and then headed down to the middle basin on day 3. We found a perfect spot to camp for the night between Inspiration and Perfection Lakes. It was high enough up to have a gorgeous view of Prusik Peak. The water was very cold, but still was fun to jump in and get cleaned up a little bit. This area was filled with mountain goats. They were pretty friendly for the most part, but we made sure we carried rocks when going to the restroom as they are after the salt in your urine.

Perfection Lake with Prusik Peak in the background

Inspiration Lake

Billy, the Goat

On the fourth day - Karla, Joey & Steve went on their own and hiked Prusik Peak and then met the rest of the group at the upper Snow Lake. The trail through the lower basin lakes is so gorgeous, the water is so clear!!! From Lake Viviane down to the Upper Snow Lake the trail is basically sheer rock cliffs. Painful on the knees and super scary, if you lost your footing you were going off the edge!

Lower Lake Basin, Sprite Lake

 Our fifth and final day we left early in the morning and hiked at a grueling speed to make it out by lunch time. 6.6 miles with about a 4,200' elevation drop. It was a great feeling when we hit the trailhead and knew we could be home taking a shower in just a few hours!!