Leslie Schaaf, 63, spent 11 days this past August walking through the Alpine Lakes from Stevens to Snoqualmie Pass on the PCT. Thank you, Leslie, for responding to our call for photos of beautiful Washington. The top photo is of cold and windy Spectacle Lake near Chikamin Ridge. This area is rather notorious for inclement weather as the moist, cool air driven from the Puget Sound collects along the Cascades before dissipating in the much drier air further east.
Looking north to the ridgeline above Waptus Lake, the pinnacle of distant Mt. Stuart (9,416′) can be seen on the right hand of the ridge. Although not so impressive from this far away, Fred Beckey (author of the Cascade Alpine Guide) says that Mt. Stuart is "without a rival as the crown peak in the central Cascades of Washington.” He continues, “Mount Stuart has been pronounced the single greatest mass of exposed granite in the United States.”
Cathedral Rock at a little more than 6,400′ is not particularly tall but is a dominant feature in the northern section of Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Cathedral Pass is about 800′ feet below Cathedral Rock.
We never get enough of these images from the Central Washington Cascades. Thank you Leslie.