Lake Stuart and Colchuck Lake Backpack

 Went backpacking up to Lake Stuart and Colchuck Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Leavenworth. The first day, we hiked up to Lake Stuart, 4.5 miles with 1,700 ft of elevation gain. The second day, we returned down to where the trail divides between the two lakes and hiked up to Colchuck Lake for lunch, then back down to the trailhead, 8 miles with 1,300 ft of elevation gain.  On a very hot day, it was nice that most of the trail was in the woods.

 With the hot weather, the snow is melting fast, and the creeks were full!

















There were some breaks in the forest where we could glimpse the peaks around us.

When we reached the beginnings of the meadows, we could see Mt Stuart through the trees

Pano along the trail in the meadows, with views of the mountains:

 The trail continued to climb up and we passed a waterfall hiding behind the trees

 Looking at Mt Stuart across Lake Stuart














Wide angle view of Lake Stuart from our campsite:

We walked along a boot track up to a large boulder in the lake, great place to cool off. Pano from here:


There were some nice streams along this side of the lake where we could refill our water bottles (after filtering the water)

 We had a deer visit our campsite in the evening,














and a chipmunk in the morning


















Morning reflection at Lake Stuart:

 After packing up, we headed back down the trail and took the side trail up towards Colchuck Lake

There was quite a bit of water on the trail

 An opening in the forest, to glimpse some nearby peaks

 Lunch site at Colchuck Lake, another great place to cool off on a hot day

Wide angle view of Colchuck Peak, Dragon Tail and Colchuck Lake

 This was a very good backpack trip!

Some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail: