Two of Washington's more beautiful lakes

Through late July, I was lucky enough to hike to two of the alpine lakes in Washington that I think are prettier than most.

First up was Colchuck, which I think I've gone to almost every year for some time now.... Normally however, I go there in early June... but with all the late snow this year, the trail was covered until mid-July, which is nuts.

Anyway, the forecast threatened temps near 90, but odd clouds and a nice breeze kept it closer to 75 the whole time.

The obligatory mountain yoga.


Mountain acrobatics (I was pretty proud of myself, but the jumping pictures were much more popular)


That being said, they are really cool jumping pictures.




I'm not actually THAT buff, but sometimes I can pretend.....


And at last, the lake itself, dramatic as always


About a week later, I took a car full of beautiful girls to the beautiful Blanca lake.




Having only been here in September, its usually not even an option to swim without getting hypothermic. Here we are sitting on the rocks, gathering the courage to jump in the glacier-fed water.


The exuberant Lauren was the first to take the plunge.


And everyone followed in kind






With my cowardly self being the last one...


The swimming was great, and plenty hot enough to dry off/not freeze to death (in fact, the top few inches of the lake were not ice-cold). One last look at the lake:


Stay tuned, the real hiking season is just getting started...