Lake Serene

Eric and I decided to head out on route 2 and return to a hike we'd done previously. We have already hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls but decided that going all the way up to Lake Serene seemed like a fantastic idea. So 7 miles and 1900 ft of elevation gain later... we did it! (Note : the 7 miles was round trip )

Have a teaser photo





The day started cloudy but many people were anticipating a nice hiking day. The parking lot was PACKED! This compared to the last time we came here and there were maybe four cars in the lot total.


We started the hike with gorgeous wildflowers on the side of the trail. So many of these are fantastic, I love the colors that bloom!


We quickly took to the path, and it was funny how different the trail felt, it was much closer and narrow thanks to the now fully leafed bushes. It definitely made what could have been a repetitive hike seem completely different. The sun did start to burn through the clouds and we had some nice light in the forest.


As we had already done the falls hike, we skipped the side trail and continued on the main path that would take us up the side of the mountain.


Pause for a photo... awww! The falls weren't as strong as before, but still pounding thanks to the snow melt that hasn't disappeared yet.


And then we started the climb. It was pretty cool seeing the falls from a different angle and through the trees. There were frequent gaps where we could see out into the valley and look across to the other mountains. It was a gorgeous view.






Eric kindly held a tree out of my way so I could get by. He's so strong!


I knew the path would be steep, and the view really made it worth it as we kept climbing.

Mount Index towered above us the entire time.


It took many pauses and brief rests for me to get up the trail. It's crazy steep. Thankfully, there are decent stairs and the trail is in good shape. I can't imagine doing this back when we started!

We crossed a little waterfall and then it was flat going and then down a bit to Lake Serene.



There is a toliet at the top but bring your own toliet paper!




Snow was still everywhere at the top, though not enough to cover the path and hinder movement to the lunch rock. It was significantly cooler and it felt like we'd gone back in time a few months, bushes were only just beginning to bud!




We joined the throngs of others at the lunch rock and enjoyed a replenishing meal (and after that hike up, I needed it!) We sat on the rock and just enjoyed the cool breezes and crisp air and tried to ignore the echoing of the traffic down below on the highway.


Lake Serene was still mostly frozen over but it was still quite serene ;D There were lots of birds and we saw a few squirrels and chipmunks.


Reflections of Index in what non-frozen water there was...


I really love my hiking poles...


The view from the viewpoint at the top.


We headed back down, going quite a bit faster than on the way up and the hike felt SO much shorter ahaha.


There were beautiful tiny flowers in the greenery next to the waterfall. It was gorgeous!


We got caught in some nasty backed up traffic (okay, not nasty, just painstakingly slow) but the weather had cleared considerably and I snagged this AWESOME photo!