Richard Hu
r.hu@berkeley.edu
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The Enchantments
Hiked on July 24, 2021
The highlight of my summer in Seattle—the Enchantments is a glorious, awe-inspiring, 20-mile trek that pushes you to your limits but rewards you handsomely for it. I planned this hike for weeks leading up to it and rounded up a group of about 10-15 Amazon interns. We stayed in a hotel in Wenachtee the night before and got up at 3 AM to start the day. I hiked from 6:15 AM to 8:45 PM and by the end I was completely spent but it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Initially, the hike takes you through a thickly wooded area until you reach the magnificent Colchuck Lake, which is strikingly blue. Take a second to admire the beauty of the lake and the reflections of Dragontail Peak because Colchuck Lake is the calm before the storm. The next leg of the hike is up Aasgard Pass, an incredibly steep and exhausting ascent. Aasgard Pass acts as sort of the gate to the Enchantments, though, and once you make it to the top, you arrive at the Upper Enchantments. A series of lakes, the Enchantments genuinely feels like an alternate, fairy-tale world. Mountain goats roam around as you admire the sublime landscape and descend down to the Lower Enchantments. At this point, you’re about halfway done and in my opinion, the remainder of the hike isn’t nearly as exciting. You descend down to Snow Lake and eventually make your way back to Icicle Road.
Lastly, the bugs on this trail are something else. I put on 99% concentrated DEET but I still got assailed and bit all over. It was worth it though; the hike was a truly wondrous experience.
