We drove out to Mission Ridge near Wenatchee to hike up to Clara and Marion Lakes in the Colockum Wildlife Area. To extend our hike through this forest of golden larches, we then made a loop by continuing on the Sqilchuck Trail to forest road 9712 down to the Pipeline Trail and the Pipeline Trail back to the Squilchuck Trail. With some exploring also around Marion Lake, overall we hiked 7.25 miles with 1,300 ft of gain. We only saw one other hiker on our way up to the lakes, along the rest of the loop, we saw 6 other hikers. These are the Western Larches.
The hike up to Clara and Marion Lakes is the steepest part, gaining 900 ft in 1.6 miles.
First view of Clara Lake from the trail.
Frozen Clara Lake
Lots of golden larches
First view of Marion Lake from the trail
Marion Lake was also frozen.
The lake level appeared low, as the water did not surround the island in the lake.
We found a boot track up in the scree field above the lake, and did some exploring among the larches, before returning down to Clara Lake and the Squilchuck Trail.
view of Squilchuck Creek between Marion and Clara Lakes
Even on this cloudy day, the golden larches seemed to glow with color.
Back at Clara Lake
The Squilchuck Trail from Clara Lake to FR 9712 was a little over a mile, and had abundant larches.
a small larch along the trail
The trail goes through an old burn area, nice to see so many larches growing here.
Some red rose hips add more color to the trail.
This is a lovely trail! there were a few icy patches where we walked slowly.
This forest of larches extends as far as we can see.
Forest Road 9712 is below these boulders, gorgeous forest view! There were 3 cars parked below.
We were fortunate, no one drove by on this road as we hiked the 1.1 mile down to the Pipeline Trail.
Another view along this portion of the road walk.
The Pipeline Trail was about 2.2 miles from the road to the junction with the Squilchuck Trail. There were some nice distant views,
and lots of larches in view along the ridge.
We had good visibility even when the rain started.
Our views didn't begin to get foggy until we neared the junction with the Squilchuck Trail.
Track of our hike today:
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