Surprise and Glacier Lakes

 We drove up to the Surprise Creek trailhead off of Hwy 2 near Scenic WA to hike up to Surprise and Glacier Lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. This was about 10.5 miles round trip with an overall elevation gain of 2,800 ft.
We only saw 2 other hikers out on this trail today.
The trail starts up a service road under the power lines for about 1/2 mile.

 The next sections is a gradual elevation gain through the forest with a number of boardwalk and wooden steps.

 A little over a mile the trail crosses Surprise Creek over this log.

 The trail continues to climb gently over the next mile or so, staying fairly close to Surprise Creek.

 A section of the trail goes through a more open area where we saw some fall color on these open slopes.

 Another view of Surprise Creek

 Near the end of the valley, the trail climbs steeply up over a series of switchbacks.

 Shortly before Surprise Lake, the trail opens up and again crosses the stream on two logs (not seen in this photo).

 Here we had a view on the east side looking up towards Thunder Mountain.



The trail then drops down a short ways to Surprise Lake.









 view of Surprise Lake











Pano of Surprise Lake

 The trail continues along the shore of the lake, until it begins to climb up another 300 feet or so and joins the South PCT Trail towards Glacier Lake

 The trail passes a small pond to the east

 I was enjoying the views along this section of the trail and walked passed the turn off to Glacier Lake.











I later took a photo of the junction with the trail to the lake, there is a small sign on the tree that says "camp".









pano of Glacier Lake

 We found a boulder on the shore to enjoy the views.

 another look at Surprise Lake as we returned back down the trail.

Besides a couple of squirrels, this snake was the only wildlife I saw on the trail.

some of the fungi and fall color we saw along the trail today: