Inspiration & Perfection Lakes | Enchantment Lakes

I know, I know, I haven’t finished writing about our trip to Washington State. My excuses are a: laziness, b: a crappy computer that has on several occasions shut down when I’ve had photos open in Photoshop thus leading to loss of interest in processing photos, and c: other interesting things that have been going on. But, I’m hoping to remedy this soon and finish the photos and writing about the trip.

When I last left off, I was talking about goats. The goats were still prevalent for the rest of the trip and were definitely a source of entertainment!

On our second morning of being in the Enchantments we slept in a bit as it was still chilly out (though it warmed up pretty quickly), ate a leisurely breakfast and broke camp. We eased our way down the trail not sure how far we would go, knowing we would just stop and take photos and go where we pleased.

We came to the southwest side of Inspiration Lake first and of course, met a goat.

If it had been the middle of the day I bet the water would have felt wonderful. Washington was experiencing a warm spell while we were there and down in Leavenworth it was over 100*. While it wasn’t that hot up in the alpine areas, it was still rather warm in the high sun hours.

Of course with our aerial view came a descent down a potentially slick slope.

Chris went first, attempting to stay in the well-worn areas already tread down by hikers in the season. The last thing he wanted was me to be right behind him and to slip, running into him and both of us glissading down the hill.

Of course we made it safely down to the rocky path below, following cairns along the way.

Chris photographing Inspiration Lake with Prussik Peak in the distance.

A small section of land separates Inspiration and Perfection Lake and we deviated from the trail in this area in order to explore a bit and look for good areas to take photos. I believe this is McClellan Peak here in the photo at the south end of Perfection Lake.

Another view of Prussik Peak with Perfection Lake in the foreground. At this point in the day we still had not come across anyone along the trail. People doing an end-to-end of the trail wouldn’t have made it up this far yet and those who had camped anywhere in the Enchantments were likely still lingering at camp. I’m still trying to grasp the leisurely hiking bit…the type of hiking that doesn’t include making a particular amount of miles for a day.

Western mountains are so imposing, scary almost. I remember when I saw Roan Mountain for the first time in the distance. The Appalachian Trail in the area of Roan does this weird loop, in which it seems like you will bypass it only to circle back around and head straight for it. Any time you would catch a view of it the mountain appeared tall and dark, daunting. But then you see taller, steeper, western mountains and change your tune just a bit!

Gotta sneak in a self portrait. I took to wearing the bandanna around my ears to keep the wind out. Too hot for a beanie but my ears still needed a wind break.

While we were poking around on the banks of Perfection Lake we heard a loud crashing noise. Turns out a piece of the ice on the side of the mountain overhanging the stream cracked and fell off into the water. The chunk itself wasn’t all that large but it produced a hefty sound that echoed throughout the area.

Next up…you’ll have to prod me into processing more photos…will be alpine macros, more goats!, and a few more lakes…and so much more!