Many backpackers have been to one of Washington State's three iconic National Parks, but the routes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness are often overlooked. The best feature that the Alpine Lakes Wilderness has to offer is that for most trails, with the exception of a handful of extremely popular routes (I'm looking at you, Enchantments), advanced reservations are not required. Campsites along the trails, especially around water sources, are plentiful. This makes the Alpine Lakes Wilderness the perfect destination for spontaneous backpacking trips or backpacking with large groups.
Adventure Stats
Hiked in September 2022
Location: Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Distance: 30 miles
Elevation: + 6966ft/-6424ft
Nights: 2
Group Size: 5
Rating: 8/10
The Route
I gathered a group of 5 together for a backpacking trip on Labor Day weekend with skill levels ranging from 2nd time backpacking to backpacked every weekend this summer.
After assessing a couple of options, we decided to use this route from AllTrails as inspiration. It followed Section J of the Pacific Crest Trail. The route came with high accolades from a 6th friend who had previously hiked this route 4 other times in the past.
This is the actual route we ended up taking with our Day 1 and Day 2 campsite locations marked:
We took the route as a through-hike from east to west with cars from our group parked at each trailhead.
Day 1 - Salmon La Sac to Spectacle Lake
We started off our journey by meeting up with our party at the Kendall Katwalk trailhead. By 7am on Labor Day weekend, the parking lot was already almost full. Our friends dropped off their car at the Kendall Katwalk trailhead, and we all shuttled together to Salmon La Sac Trailhead.
Before getting started, we made sure to fill out a permit form at the trailhead with some information about our route. Filing a permit helps inform the US Forest Service which trails are well traveled so that they can divert funding appropriately for trail maintenance and beautification at no extra cost to you.
REMINDER: the US Forest Service typically does not use their permit system to perform search and rescues for lost hikers. You are always responsible for informing trusted friends and family about your planned route and planned date of return.
The first stretch of the hike between Salmon La Sac and Cooper Lake was a very flat and pleasant stroll through the forest following Cooper River upstream. If I were to travel this route again, I would actually choose to cut out the segment of the route between Salmon La Sac and Cooper Lake. The extra mileage would have been better spent later in the trip for summitting peaks or exploring the Glacier Lake junction.
The trail spit us out on the road just ahead of Cooper Lake campground. You can choose to follow the road up or take a side trail through the campground, like we did, to the Cooper Lake trailhead. The trail through the campground was a little difficult to navigate with many little offshoots on the rim trail leading straight into other people's campsites.
At the Cooper Lake trailhead, we met up with the 5th member of our party. The next several miles flew by. The trail routed through the forest with a very gradual incline. When we got to Pete Lake, we decided to take a snack break. Despite its humble name, Pete Lake was a perfect embodiment of an glistening blue alpine lake, surrounded on all sides by woods and mountains.
We hit Lemah Creek shortly after Pete Lake. The creek was flowing shin-deep water with no easy rock hop or log crossing around it. A pair of trail runners came by and gave us a tip that if we added a mile to our journey north and linked up with the Pacific Crest Trail, there were bridges we could take that would avoid the creek crossing. Our group, already exhausted from over ten miles of backpacking that day, decided to take our chances with the creek crossing. We took off our shoes and socks, then tied them to our packs. Let me tell you -- the creek was ICE COLD, but we had already committed. We dashed through the creek as quick as we could and found ourselves on warm solid ground on the other bank. We passed around my handy dandy PackTowl to dry our feet off.
The next stretch of the journey grew a bit steeper. We were blessed by overcast skies as the trail led us through a section with little tree coverage. A section of the trail had been scarred by a wildfire a season or two ago and had already started to see a regrowth of its understory. We saw a lot of vibrant purple wildflowers blooming in this section, which I later learned was Fireweed. Apparently these beautiful flowers are some of the first plants to regrow after a wildfire in North America - isn't nature awesome?
We had originally been planning to camp at Glacier Lake for our first night, but after considering a multitude of factors (the sun was setting earlier in the day this time of year, our group had an aggressive goal of traversing 16 miles in a single day, and our group was tired from the extra mileage between Salmon La Sac and Cooper Lake), we decided to set up camp at Spectacle Lake instead.
Just ahead of Spectacle Lake, there was a small junction - one that led north (unmapped on our Caltopo route) and one that led west along the PCT then north to Spectacle Lake. One of our group members decided to explore the lesser-traveled path northward and later told us that it was a fun scramble that cut out 0.5 miles of distance. The route that led west took us to a well-maintained wooden bridge that crossed in front of a waterfall.
When we got to Spectacle Lake, it was PACKED since it was Labor Day Weekend. I guess that's the cost of not needing advanced reservations; campsites were a free-for-all. Many campers found a place to camp on the peninsula between the two halves of Spectacle Lake, which was probably the right move to get great views at both sunrise and sunset. I ran into a unique problem that I had never considered would be an issue. Most of the available campsites were on hard rock, which did not accommodate our ultralight trekking pole tent. We had to pass up on better views to find a spot that worked, but luckily we found a grassy spot by the water. One of our group members who brought a dome tent was able to set up his tent on a tall boulder overlooking the lake.
Day 2 - Spectacle Lake to Ridge Lake
Despite having our tent side walls fully rolled up to facilitate ventilation, our tent got soaked with condensation overnight. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at camp as we waited for the sun to rise over the surrounding mountains and cast its warm rays on our tent. As we waited for our gear to dry, we enjoyed morning calisthenics and watched neighboring campers swim and kayak in the lake. We saw a couple horses on the trail on Day 1, and we suspect that these horses carried inflatable kayaks all the way here. We had a late start to our day, but there are certainly worse ways to start a day.
Because we started the day late, we opted to fully skip Glacier Lake. The trail leading to the Glacier Lake junction was abundant with wild blueberries ripe for foraging. We took a break in the blueberry fields at Eagle Lake to snack and refresh our water supply. This was the last accessible lake for water before reaching our final destination at Ridge Lake.
The route between Spectacle Lake and the Glacier Lake junction saw rolling hill, with some sustained uphill sections. However, once we reached the junction to Glacier Lake we knew that the rest of our day would be relatively flat. While we never got to enjoy Glacier Lake, we enjoyed views of Park Lake to the south after reaching the junction.
The next several miles of the trail were full of scree fields with no tree coverage. Above a certain altitude, it's common to find scree fields, fields of loose rock in mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest. It was one of our group member's first time traversing scree fields, and he needed to take it slow to avoid rolling his ankle. If it's your first time on scree fields, be sure to budget extra time for this section!
Just ahead of Alaska Mountain, we found a white-furred marmot hanging out on the scree.
Along the trail, we met several Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers and section hikers. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear some of their stories. For many hikers, it was their last few nights on the Pacific Crest Trail. After 3 or 4 months of backpacking, they would have to give up on their trek due to looming uncertainty of wildfire danger between this section of trail and the Canadian border.
After passing through what felt like endless fields of scree, we were able to catch spectacular views of Joe Lake, another lake with an innocuous name. The trail then entered a shaded section of forest, which soon evolved into the final set of switchbacks we would have to take on our adventure.
The switchbacks led to the Alaska Mountain saddle. We followed a primitive trail to reach Alaska Mountain. I would not recommend the primitive trail unless you're in good physical condition. The trail was tight, steep, and brushy with a scramble up large rocks toward the end. We missed the turn to the true peak, but we enjoyed the views from atop the almost-peak.
We reached Ridge Lake shortly before dark and found it to be just as packed as Spectacle Lake. There's a second lake nearby called Gravel Lake that is much less accessible as a water source and, as its name suggests, does not offer any campsites due to steep fields of scree surrounding its perimeter.
Day 3 - Ridge Lake to Kendall Katwalk
We left camp bright and early the next day. It was cold, but we warmed up as we got moving. The viewpoint at Kendall Katwalk was unbelievable. There's a small section of the Katwalk that is a sheer dropoff on both sides where we got a full 360 view of the mountain. It's hard to imagine how trail workers blasted through sheer rock to construct this section of trail.
From Kendall Katwalk, we also got a great view of the Summit at Snoqualmie, a popular local ski resort. It looked entirely different this time of year!
For the final section of the trail, we took a small shortcut that branched off from the Pacific Crest Trail directly to the Kendall Katwalk trailhead. Despite being much less popular, the shortcut shaved off a mile and routed us away from another stretch of scree. After traversing so much scree the previous day, a relaxing return route through the forest was welcomed.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, this trail was a great pick for a spontaneous 3-day backpacking trip. The terrain was diverse, ranging from forested sections to scree fields, with rolling uphill and downhill sections so that I never grew bored of the route. The route was a great visual sampler of alpine lakes and mountains with each view better than the next. There were also few mosquitos this time of year.
The one pitfall of this adventure was that the campgrounds were packed so tightly that it felt impossible to find a spot large enough for our group. When I take this route again, I'll be avoiding federal holidays.
