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Source Lake and Snow Lake

posted September 24th, 2012 in Trip reports

This is actually a combined trip report, one from today and one from three weeks ago. It’s not as completely random as it sounds, though, because both Source Lake and Snow Lake are a part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. My snowboard teacher had been recommending them both to me, so I finally decided to check them out. Conveniently, there’s a huge amount of parking at the trailhead, since it shares a parking lot with the Alpental ski area.

First, three weeks ago, I visited Source Lake, so named as the source of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. (The river must have a great many tributaries, given the amount of water in the lake compared to the amount of water other places I’ve been along the South Fork.) The hike is fairly easy, with maybe one or two steep parts but mostly a gentle climb. When I hiked there, about the only wildflowers remaining were some fireweed along the trail closer to the beginning. Most of the hike is exposed, either along the side of the mountain or along some boulder slides.

I wanted to go play on the one remaining snow pile near the lake, but I couldn’t find a good way to get to it. It was a reasonably easy hike up to there, so I thought about continuing on to Snow Lake, but decided I should stick to the hiking plan people knew about instead of continuing on. Instead, I made it out today, since it was a much nicer weather day than yesterday. The trail follows the same trail as Source Lake for about the first two miles (okay, technically, it’s the other way around; it’s the Snow Lake trail, and the trail to Source Lake spurs off of it), and then it starts to switch back and forth up about another 4-500 feet over another mile. You hit a ridge and then descend 350 feet, give or take, down to the lake shore. I finished the stroll down to the lake behind a group of 4 other people, one of whom decided “snow” meant she should sing Christmas carols. After one of the other girls in the party said, “No carols until November,” she switched to random pop songs. Someone then wondered aloud how many people had taken to the wilderness to get away from “people like her;” the guy hiking (separately) in front of them raised his hand.

I bumped into one of my coworkers on the way up the trail, and he remarked that the lake was a zoo; even given the number of people I passed exiting as I was going in, it was still pretty popular mid afternoon. On the other hand, it’s a big area, so it didn’t feel that crowded or loud — at least, until two groups’ dogs decided they couldn’t swim in the same part of the lake and instead should bark at each other. I continued along the trail for a while to get to some rock outcroppings, but then turned around before I tried to find my way all the way to the opposite end of the lake.