The Alpine Lakes area is very aptly named because there are many, many lakes in the area, and a great network of trails connecting all of them. When getting the pictures ready for putting in this post, I realized there isn't much different between them. I was having difficulty recognizing which photos were from yesterday. But there is definitely differences in the trails leading to them. Snow Lake from last weekend is from the "Hikes with Children" trails book, but I don't know many children that would enjoy the death march it would become for them. The Snow Lake trail starts off nice and easy, but suddenly you come to the section where you gain all the elevation. The trip is worth it, Snow Lake is stunning.
But, because Snow Lake is great, it is a very popular trail. Pratt Lake is in the same area, but is less popular. I was worried that hiking on the weekend, with great weather it would be packed, but it turned out I only saw about 10 people on the trail.
Here are the pictures. This first one is looking out onto Olallie Lake from a view point along the trail. If you look closely, Mount Rainier is trying to hide behind a pine tree, but it is a little like a very large person trying to hide behind a telephone pole. The tree in the right foreground shows that Fall is just around the corner, the leaves are starting to shows signs of orange.
I didn't hike to Olallie Lake today, I think I did last year. They all start blurring together after a while. The view from above was nice.
This next picture is of Pratt Lake. This is taken at the north end of the lake, looking south. Along the trail I bumped into a guy hiking up to do some camping and fishing. Since he could tell by my backpack that I was a day hiker, he wasn't worried about competition for the best tent site and biggest fish. He told me about the much nicer lake that is 15 minutes beyond Pratt. Pratt is nice, but it is surrounded by steep inclines, and you can only get to the water at this one spot. And the area is only about 30 feet wide, it gets somewhat trampled.
Continuing along the trail past Pratt Lake, you arrive at Lower Tuscohatchie Lake. The trail comes out of the trees, up over a small incline where you hear a waterfall and then suddenly you see this lake in front of you. It was definitely worth the extra trip. I hung out here and had my lunch on a big, flat rock in the sunshine and relaxed. There were several big dragonflies and I wanted to capture them in a photo, but it would have been a frustrating excercise, so I decided to lay back and watch them instead.
