The Enchantments

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View to Prusik Peak from Gnome Tarn

The Enchantments are an area which comprises an upper and a lower catchment area with the lakes and cirque lakes located therein and is bounded by the peaks of the Stuart Range . The area lies entirely in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness about 15 miles southwest of Leavenworth (Washington) in the western United States . The Enchantments are considered one of the most spectacular locations in the Cascade Range .

history

The Enchantments as seen from Prusik Pass

The first white American to explore the area and give it his name was AH Sylvester , a topographer on the United States Geological Survey and the first director of the Wenatchee National Forest . Sylvester was visiting the middle Enchantments Basin and probably did not risk venturing into the upper basin. Snow Creek Glacier ( 47 ° 28 ′  N , 120 ° 49 ′  W ) covered more of the upper basin than it does today, which may have discouraged him from exploring the higher elevations. New Year's Eve is the namesake of many geographical objects in the region.

By the 1940s, climbers explored the area and began naming the individual rocks. Leavenworth's Bill and Peg Stark became regular visitors, relying on various myths to identify the features of the landscape. When they first visited the area in autumn 1959, they were overwhelmed by the golden glow of the rocky larches , the numerous lakes and cirque lakes and the jagged peaks towering above them. From the world of fairies and wizards as "Gnome Tarn" (dt "dwarfs Card".) Used the name, "Troll Sink" (dt "Troll Valley."), "Naiad Lake" (dt. Najaden -See; officially "Temple Lake"), "Sprite" (Eng. "Elfe"). Legends about King Arthur were also used in the Lower Enchantment Basin, because "the lower basin didn't look as serious as the upper basin," Peg later said. They used the names of the "Northmen" (a group of Germanic peoples from Scandinavia) and their mythology for objects in the upper basin such as "Brynhild Lake" (officially "Inspiration Lake"), "Lake Freya" (officially "Tranquil Lake") and "Valhalla Cirque ”because, according to Peg, it felt“ like the Ice Age was just over ”.

The official naming rules of the United States Board on Geographic Names from the 1960s resulted in a mixture of two sets of names that were officially adopted, particularly for the lakes, but also for the mountain pass commonly known as Aasgard Pass , officially known as the "Colchuck Pass" referred to as. Various sources still use the unofficial names in some contexts. The current policy of not adopting new names for geographic features in the wild may preclude the rest of the Starks' names from gaining official status.

The number of visitors to the Enchantments grew rapidly over time, in part due to Seattle's rapidly growing population. Up to the end of the 1970s, up to 300 people camped in the pool on summer weekends, leaving garbage behind, creating wild paths and trampling down the heather. The Forest Service installed toilets in 1966, restricted access to horses in 1972, and banned dogs from access in 1982; In 1987 a permit system for overnight camping in the Enchantments, Snow Lakes, Stuart Lake and Colchuck Lake was established.

hike

The Aasgard Pass offers very steep access to the enchantments

There are two primary approaches to enchantments. Both entry points are accessed via Icicle Creek Road. The Snow Lake entrance is off Icicle Creek Road at a large parking lot near the creek. The trail climbs 6.5 mi (10.5 km) to Snow Lakes ( 47 ° 28 ′ 56 ″  N , 120 ° 45 ′ 25 ″  W ) over 4,100 ft (1,250 m). From the Snow Lakes the path climbs over sloping granite boulders to the Lower Enchantments. The entire hike is 9 mi (14 km) long (one way) with an elevation profile of 6,000 ft (1,829 m) to 7,800 ft (2,377 m). This hike usually takes two days in each direction and is described as “long, steep and extremely strenuous”. The alternative route is a few miles up Eightmile Road off Icicle Creek Road from Stuart Lake Entry. The trail to Colchuck Lake ( 47 ° 29 ′ 31 ″  N , 120 ° 50 ′ 2 ″  W ) is 4.75 mi (7.6 km) long and overcomes 2,100 ft (640 m); a further 1.75 mi (2.8 km) take the hikers to the south end of the lake and to the Aasgard Pass ( 47 ° 29 ′  N , 120 ° 49 ′  W ), which is over 0.8 mi (1.3 km) by 2,200 ft (671 m) increases. The Aasgard Pass is a steep climbing path, which can be dangerous when descending in snow. The Aasgard Pass route has been described as "bad taste" because it ignores the beauty of the lower basin to ascend to the upper basin. The two routes can be combined into one circular route if the hiking group has cars, bicycles or other means of transport between the two entry points.

The United States Forest Service restricts access to the enchantments, which are divided into five zones, with permits. The three most popular zones are the Snow Zone (from Icicle Creek up to the Snow Lakes), the Colchuck Zone (the area around Colchuck Lake) and the Core Enchantment Zone (core zone with Upper and Lower Enchantment Basins and surrounding areas). The other zones are the Stuart Zone (the area around Stuart Lake and the northern approaches to Mount Stuart ) and the Eightmile / Caroline Zone (Eightmile Lake, Eightmile Mountain, Cashmere Mountain and the surrounding area). In addition, the Forest Service has proposed extending the license area to Ingalls Lake ( 47 ° 28 ′ 13 ″  N , 120 ° 56 ′ 19 ″  W ), Headlight Basin, and Mount Stuart in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1993 . That could have been implemented in 2010 at the earliest.

The 1981 Alpine Lakes Wilderness Plan created a quota for the carrying capacity of the Core Enchantment Zone of 60 people at a time. For multi-day camping between May 15 and October 31, hikers must have permits for each of the five currently created zones. 75 percent of the permits for each hiking season will be raffled. The first round of the (highly competitive) lottery included e.g. For example, in the 2016 season, all applications received between February 15 (00:01 a.m. PT ) and March 2 (11:59 p.m. PT). All applications were considered in the raffle on or around March 6th. The remaining 25 percent is spent every morning (except Sundays) at 7:45 a.m. at the Leavenworth ranger station for hikes starting on the same day. If not enough permits are available for the applicants of the day, these will also be raffled on site.

The Forest Service's dog bans allowed mountain goat and ptarmigan populations to recover.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enchantment Permit Areas Zone Map ( JPG ) United States Forest Service . 2009. Archived from the original on January 20, 2009. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b Greg Johnston: A heavenly reward awaits in the Enchantment Lakes Basin . Seattle Post-Intelligencer . October 21, 2004. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved on August 9, 2007.
  3. ↑ Craig Romano: Hike 56 . In: Day Hiking Central Cascades . Mountaineers Books, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c Ira Spring, Harvey Manning: 100 hikes in Washington's Alpine Lakes. Enchantment Lakes, Icicle Creek, Teanaway, Peshastin, Snoqualmie Pass . 1st edition. The Mountaineers, Seattle, WA 1998, ISBN 0-89886-707-X , 48 Enchantment Lakes (English, books.google.de - snippet, restricted view).
  5. ^ Chester Marler: East of the Divide. Travels through the eastern slope of the North Cascades 1870-1999 . North Fork Books, Leavenworth, WA 2004, ISBN 0-9754605-0-1 , pp. 50 .
  6. ^ Karen Sykes: World-renowned basin in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness has a magical allure . In: Special to the Post-Intelligencer . Seattle Post-Intelligencer . October 8, 1998. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved on August 9, 2007.
  7. ↑ David Foster: Rangers help control overcrowding as hikers try loving forests to death . The Bulletin (Bend). September 7, 1989. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  8. ^ Enchantment Lakes . Washington Trails Association.
  9. ↑ a b Ira Spring, Vicky Spring, Harvey Manning: 100 Classic Hikes in Washington , 3rd Edition, The Mountaineers, 2002, ISBN 0-89886-586-7 .
  10. ↑ Jim Nelson, Peter Potterfield: Selected Climbs in the Cascades , 2nd. Edition, Volume 1, Mountaineers Books, 2003, p. 114.
  11. ↑ a b Enchantment Area Wilderness Permits . United States Forest Service . 2009. Archived from the original on March 29, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
  12. ^ Enchantment Permit Area, WA . Recreation.gov. Retrieved September 25, 2015.

Web links

Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 52 "  N , 120 ° 48 ′ 14"  W.