This is the hike we did on Tuesday, via WTA website:
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/marion-and-clara-lakes
Our whole crew was spending a few days at Lincoln Rock, a wonderful state park/campsite near Wenatchee, in central Washington. The park is on the Columbia River, just upstream from the Rocky Reach dam. The dam has created a nice lake on which we have been known to swim and kayak. (no kayaks this time, weren’t able to haul them on top of Jill’s car)
We had no plans to hike so neither Derek nor I were quite prepared. In particular we did not have our hiking boots, which, as it turns out, would have come in very handy. But Derek looked up a hike called Devil’s Spur and we headed for that.
Turns out we were not real close to that trail but we did park next to the trail for Marion and Clara Lakes. We parked next door to the Mission Ridge ski lodge and headed up the trail.
We went a bit farther than the official trail and Derek’s phone app said we did 5.2 miles and it was about a thousand feet of elevation gain – not a huge effort but it was fun.
The trail head is at about 4,400 feet and we got up to about 5,400 feet which means we were in Marmot territory. We saw a few of those cute little furry creatures, along with chipmunks and some other sort of rabbit-like critter. Plenty of birds and flowers and the forest is beautiful.
This is a snowshoe trail in the winter and we talked about maybe coming back some time with the snow shoes and giving it a try. Plus, a half mile or so past the end of the trail we encountered the basalt talus and we were eyeing it for a potential adventure to the summit of the two peaks in that area.
This is where the hiking boots would have been nice since they would have offered protection against the scree. I decided to stop at the beginning of the scree field to save my shoes and feet from a beating.
Derek took a bunch of photos on his phone and when he gets a chance to send them I will update this post with those.
A fun hike on a beautiful day. I highly recommend this to anyone in the Wenatchee area looking for a moderate hike or healthy snow shoe.