Keechelus Lake

We walked down to Keechelus Lake from Hyak this morning. The water level in the lake is much higher compared to when we were here in December. Beautiful day, 2 miles round trip with minimal snow. Views at Keechelus Lake where the water has come up over the road looking eastward

view to the northwest, second photo is a zoom of Chikamin Peaks

As we neared Hyak on our way back, we could see Denny Mountain (zoom)

and Snoqualmie Mountain with Deeny Peak (zoom) in the distance to the west

Keechelus Lake

We walked down to Keechelus Lake from the Hyak SnoPark. The route was well packed snow, slightly soft. We did not need snowshoes or microspikes, 2.6 miles round trip with minimal loss/gain Most of the trail is through the woods on the closed road.

View as we neared the lake

Views from the boat launch area

Keechelus Lake

We started at the Hyak SnoPark to walk down to Keechelus Lake. We stayed off of the groomed ski track area, sticking to the snowshoe/hiker side and continued down to the lake for about 3 miles round trip. The route was well packed down. View as we neared the lake:

view to the north:

view to the southeast:

to the east:

Mt Catherine and Mount Hyak to the southwest:

As far as we went today, looking east at the lake:

Distant view of Guye Peak and Snoqualmie Mountain to the west as we headed back:

 

Keechelus Lake Snowshoe

We drove up to the Hyak SnoPark to snowshoe over to Keechelus Lake and back. Overall we did 3.6 miles with about 200 ft of overall gain. We started by snowshoeing off to the left of the groomed area. About 0.5 mile down we turned off on the blue diamond route to the lake.

View by a small creek looking towards Mt Catherine

View of Keechelus Lake to the east. The water level was low so we were able to walk quite a ways along the exposed boat ramp.

Looking back to the west and the Hyak ski area

Erosion has under cut the exposed bank, so we kept away from the edge. view to the east

At the end of the boat ramp, we had nice views including these sheets of broken ice. It was windy. The noise of the wind kept us from hearing the freeway noise. Looking northwest

to the  east

north east

south

We followed the shore line for a while, until the creek had us head back towards the road.

The creek comes out under the road, so we were able to hike up, over and around.

We continued snowshoeing with the lake and nearby mountain ridges in view, 

Until another creek had us heading back to the road.

We took the road back, staying off to the north side of the groomed area. A small view of Keechelus Lake from the road.