Get moving to visit Washington's Enchantment Lakes

LEAVENWORTH, Washington -- Midwinter is a fine time to daydream about summer backpacking, but if you want to stay at Washington's Enchantment Lakes -- it seems that much of the backpacking world does -- you need to wake up and get moving.

Spending the night at one of the most beautiful high-country spots in the Northwest takes hard work, planning and more than a little luck.

You will need to climb steep, rocky, sometimes slippery trails. Almost certainly you will need to win a lottery for a permit.

And you need to hurry -- the U.S. Forest Service has moved up the window for the permit applications by three weeks to Feb. 1-8.

Every backpacker has favorite camping spots. For most who ramble in this corner of the country, however, the Enchantments are on the must-do list.

That's been the problem. The extremely fragile and, well, enchanting string of lakes nestled in glacier-polished rock in the Cascades are so popular that the Forest Service strictly limits the numbers allowed to camp there; on average about 60 people can stay each night. Demand is such and to give everyone a fair chance, it has a somewhat complex lottery system for issuing the special permits, which are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain for particular dates.

I was lucky last year. I won a permit for my third-choice date at the end of September. Luckier still, I was there at the height of the colorful fall foliage, including the delicate yellow larches that struggle for a toehold in the boulder fields.

I also was blessed with a rare, incomparably mild and cloudless day before having to flee an incoming snowstorm. Add that I avoided sliding hundreds of feet off a cliff next to the trail, and I am one fortunate guy.

The Enchantments are about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Seattle in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Crystalline, ice-cold lakes with names like Perfection, Inspiration, Tranquil and Isolation dot a compact, two-mile-long (three-kilometer-long) basin rimmed by the jagged ridges of Little Annapurna and Prusik, McClellan and Dragontail peaks.

As late as the 1920s, much of the basin above 7,500 feet (2,286 meters) was covered by glaciers, and plants are only now moving onto rock exposed when the ice receded. In the lower reaches, there is just enough soil for low shrubs, berry bushes, twisted trees and wildflowers to exploit the few weeks of summer.

You might find a family of mountain goats sharing the narrow trail. Not exactly tame, they seem willing to tolerate visitors so long as they behave themselves.

Reaching paradise is supposed to take effort, and the Enchantments are no exception.

There are two trails in. From the east, the Snow Lake route climbs about 5,500 feet (1,675 meters) in 10 miles (16 kilometers). The Colchuck Lake trail from the northwest gains 4,400 feet (1,341 meters) in a little over six miles (10 kilometers), but half of that comes in less than one mile (1ˆ½ kilometer) in the final trudge to Aasgard Pass.

Rich Haydon, wilderness resource manager with the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, says that despite the sweat required, it still is a relatively short hike to spectacular scenery above the timberline. For some, he says, "A winter trip to go up there to ski would seem reasonable and for other people the middle of summer's too much."

Critical is knowing which one you are. For most people, Haydon says, June and early July before the snow clears is too early. Late July through August is the prime season, and while autumn can be beautiful, expect snow by mid-September.

Traveling from lake to lake can require scrambling up rock fields or inching across boulders. People have died doing that. On the basin's east side, you must cross smooth granite that quickly tapers from steep to vertical, "horrible with a few inches of new snow," Haydon says.

Overnight permits are required June 15 through Oct. 15. Last year, Haydon says, about 1,400 group applications were received by the March deadline, about double the number from a decade earlier. Of those, about a third got a permit for the "Core Enchantments," the actual high-country basin, another third got to stay at lakes within day-hiking range, and the rest got nothing.

Adding the small number of permits set aside for daily drawings at the Leavenworth ranger station, about 8,000 people were allowed to camp last season at the Enchantments or nearby lakes. About 3,000 made the trip as a day hike.

Applications cannot be postmarked before Feb. 1 and must arrive by Feb. 8. Haydon says all go into a great big box and are drawn randomly, with staffers doing their best to accommodate requested dates.

He says most people understand the need for the limits as well as strict "Leave No Trace" rules to prevent crowds, chaos and the "beat-up look" before the wilderness area was created in the 1970s. If they do not win a permit, he says, there are abundant consolation prizes:

"It's hard to send them to something just like the Enchantments, but on the other hand we can send them to lots of beautiful alpine country."

If You Go...

PERMITS: To camp at the Enchantment Lakes you will need a permit, all but a few of which are awarded in advance by a drawing. To handle the growing number of applications, this year's window to apply has been moved up to Feb. 1-8. The cost is $5 a day per person. Essential information, application forms and detailed advice are at the Forest Service's Enchantments Web site, http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/wenatchee/passes/enchantments/ .

REALLY, DO WE NEED THAT PAPERWORK?: The permit system was adopted to prevent crowds from destroying the fragile basin. Friendly, helpful backcountry rangers roam the trails, but they check everyone for a permit. Don't have? You'll be ordered to leave and fined $125.

BE PREPARED: Unless you are a skilled climber or athlete, for average folks this is a tough, steep, and potentially dangerous trip, especially with a heavy pack in bad weather. Have good gear, be ready for snow and be smart enough to bail before you get into trouble.

C'MON, HOW HARD CAN IT BE?: From the Snow Lake trailhead on the east, it is a 5,500-foot (1,676-meter) elevation gain over 10 miles, the last part over steep, often slick granite. The Colchuck Lake route from the northwest is about 6 miles (10 kilometers)and a 4,400-foot (1,340-meter) gain, but the last 2,200 feet (670 meters) climbs in less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometer) to Aasgard Pass.

KEEP IT CLEAN: "Leave No Trace" practices are mandatory; if rangers are not there to enforce them, your fellow campers will. And use the pit toilets -- the soil is not deep enough to bury waste.

GETTING THERE: Take U.S. 2 to Leavenworth on the east side of the Cascades. Trailheads are a few miles west of town.

NO LUCK?: If you do not get a permit it still is the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, with scores of high-country destinations delightful in their own right.

WHEW: Take time afterward to recover at Leavenworth, a Bavarian-themed tourist town with dozens of inns, B&Bs, restaurants and gift shops, many with complementary oompah music.