Alpine Backpacking in the PNW
Just a few short weeks after we returned home from our last backpacking trip in Washington, we were heading back to the Pacific Northwest - this time to meet up with friends who live in the area.
They invited two of their friends and we had a little squad for the first night. We hiked into a beautiful alpine lake with incredibly blue water. It was a popular spot on a Friday night, but we found a primo spot to camp - unfortunately, right by the long drop toilet. It was perched up high so it had a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains, but it also was weirdly situated where if you wanted - you could greet each person as they went to use the toilet. The spot was big enough for all 4 tents though so it was perfect for us and gave us plenty of space to hang out and play games in the evening too. We spent the first night exploring around this lake & found ample entertainment from a group of young “wanna be influencers” who also happened to be at the lake. There was clearly one guy in charge and he had brought up some of his pals from the city who may have been newer to hiking to be featured in his videos. We were entertained overhearing bits of their conversation and learning some new Gen Z terms as were down by the lake getting water.
The next day, we decided to explore and venture up to another lake we knew sat above the lake we were camping at. We opted not to bring packs and gear, but rather to hike up for the day and spend as much time as we wanted before hiking back down to camp. We hiked up a glacier to reach the next lake and we were blown away when we reached the top.
We spent much of the afternoon and all evening up at this incredible view - we couldn’t bring ourselves to miss sunset up there even though most of the group turned back before dinner. We watched as the colors changed from blue to purple to pinks in the sky and saw the sunset on the peaks.
We hiked down in the dark, running where possible, to get back down to camp and cook dinner faster. We did some controlled glissade sliding down the snow field where we could and used our headlamps to guide the way. When we finally returned to camp we enjoyed a 9:30 pm dinner and one round of cards with friends before calling it a night.
The rain came in the next day and didn’t look like it’d be leaving. We opted to hike out a day early because the weather forecast wasn’t looking good and there was more rain on the horizon.
We stopped at a local bar up in the mountains after we hiked out - thinking we’d grab a quick dinner before driving back to Seattle. Little did we know, it was karaoke night so Lexi and I signed up for Karaoke. It wasn’t very full and the scene wasn’t looking like your average karaoke bar, but we embraced it and sang Love Story by Taylor Swift - putting on a show for the empty restaurant with our choreographed dance we made up along the way.
Back in Seattle, the four of us played Spikeball at a park by the lake and enjoyed a picnic lunch from a local market. It was a really relaxing, leisurely way to end a great trip before our flight home. Plus, we didn’t need to fit in an extra day of hiking in the rain because we know we’ll be back with many more adventures mapped out in this area.