Skyline Lake Snowshoe

January 23, 2011

Since our unsuccessful snowshoeing attempt last year, we had one major requirement for this trip - snow.  This entailed a few phone calls to park rangers and outdoor store employees, which entailed changing our hike not once, but twice.  We ended up heading to Skyline Lake at Stevens Pass, about two and a half hours from Seattle.  And true to everyone's word, there was plenty of snow.

The trail is only 3 miles round trip, but it is 1100 feet of uphill right at the beginning.  And snowshoeing is considerably more strenuous than regular hiking, especially if you get into deeper snow.  The snow on the trail was pretty packed down but still, I stopped pretty early on to strip down to my Capilene and take my hat off.  

I've seen people snowshoe before, and I've seen people cross country ski before, but this trip was the first time I've seen people snowshoeing with skis on their back.  I continue to be impressed by the outdoor prowess of folks in the Pacific Northwest.  This was also my first time in the mountains in winter since I'd moved here -- it was incredible to experience a completely transformed landscape.  I was impressed with the evergreen trees, weighed down by boughs of snow, the ends of branches blown into permanent frozen curls.

After a while the trail leveled out, and after a little while longer, we were pretty sure we were at the edge of a ridge overlooking the lake.  It was so overcast, that we couldn't see any of the views that the hike had listed as landmarks.  We explored along the ridge for a while, playing in the deeper drifts, and then headed back down.

As we headed back down the trail, we spotted a well worn path leading off of ours, and Michael instinctively said we should explore it.  Well, a half mile down that was the real lake.  We spent a while in a haze of snow, taking pictures of the frozen lake (which by the way, just looks like a big field in winter).  Someone had built a snowman along the shore.

It was faster but colder on the way down.  Now I wanted a pair of skis.  A few swaths of sky cleared on the way down, and for a couple minutes, we caught a glimpse of the Stevens Pass ski area across the way.  It was so nice to be able to get out for a hike in the winter -- I'm looking forward to more snowshoe forays.

Directions: To get there, from Everett drive east on U.S. Highway 2 to the summit of Stevens Pass. Park in the ski area parking lots on the north side of the highway.

Skyline Lake