<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/40712015090/in/album-72157695840476301" title="From Little Annapurna, looking down to Upper Snow Lake between The Temple (left) and McClellan (right)"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/1729/40712015090_c8a14ef20f_b.jpg" alt="From Little Annapurna, looking down to Upper Snow Lake between The Temple (left) and McClellan (right)"/> - Route: Snow Lakes trailhead to Colchuck Lake overlook and back - [Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/albums/72157695840476301) - Time: started hiking at 4:30am, back at car at 8:30pm - Area: [[Alpine Lakes Wilderness]] Not being a fan of overly popular areas with permit complications, I had never been to the Enchantments. But even hikers who have seen everything in the Cascades say it's really pretty, so with a cloudy forecast for the west-side and clear on the east-side I decided to finally day hike it. Not wanting to be judged by Harvey Manning, I did the Snow Lakes approach in & out. I didn't have very high expectations of the Snow Lakes approach, but it's actually quite pretty. The section until Nada Lake has wonderful flowers, is not very dusty this time of the year, and the forest is very lush, pretty similar to forest on the west side of the crest. The trail gets a bit more rocky after Nada lake. Between Nada lake and Snow Lakes there are some boulder fields to cross where to trail is covered by presumably new boulders. The section from Upper Snow Lake to Lake Viviane is remarkably bad. Very eroded, often there is no clear trail and you just scramble up rocks, guided by cairns. This is probably the worst official trail I've been on. It's not suitable for small kids, if anybody can drag them this far into the mountains. There are some easy, flat snow patches from the approach to Snow Lakes until Lake Viviane, but nothing complicated (just mind the holes later on the day). Just before Lake Viviane there is some snow that is a little harder to cross if you can't kick good steps, but nothing too complicated. Lake Viviane is quite pretty. It looks like most people who have a core permit camp there this time of the year, probably because after Lake Viviane everything is snow-covered. It was a bit of a zoo there because of this. I roughly followed the summer trail to the top of the Aasgard Pass. It was pretty, but it's probably nicer when the lakes have melted out a bit more. It's currently mostly rocks and snow. I was considering doing either Dragontail Peak or Little Annapurna, but from the Aasgard Pass the snow to the col looked pretty steep. I decided to keep it a bit mellow and go to Little Annapurna via West Annapurna. The west ridge of Little Annapurna is melted out, and travel is pretty easy. The views from Little Annapurna were even better than I anticipated. After this the long way down from 8440 to the 1300ft trailhead ... Uneventful, and mostly a mental challenge. I saw an Osprey fishing at Nada lake, which was cool to see. Misc notes: - Brought snowshoes, didn't need them (it did soften up during the day, so it depends on how much it freezes during the night before - I guess snowshoes may be useful in some conditions) - Brought crampons and used them. Traction devices would have been fine. - Brought an ice axe and used it, but not really needed (obviously depends on what you plan to do in the basin). - I brought boots as well as trail runners for the long approach. I used trailrunners until Lake Viviane. This worked pretty well, except I somehow developed an epic blister on the way out. I probably didn't tape/tie correctly. - I was surprised how many backpackers were heading up to the core. I think there were at least 10 parties there, and several were big groups. I had expected the permit system to be more constrained on how many parties are allowed. Everybody was in great spirit and very happy to be visiting the area, so it was kind of fun to talk with people. - Time: started hiking at 4:30am, back at car at 8:30pm - The initial hour or so is very easy trail, and is fine to hike in the dark to do this later in the season when days are shorter and warmer. - Distance: too far (haven't synced GPS yet) - Elevation gain: too much (probably around 7500-8000) <a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/28646924138/in/album-72157695840476301" title="Nightmare Needles from Little Annapurna"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/1757/28646924138_e93f21d960_b.jpg" alt="Nightmare Needles from Little Annapurna"/></a>