Every Year I Hike Gothic Basin, and This Year Was No Different

I had a rare opportunity to get out for a hike yesterday and used it for my annual trip to Gothic Basin, which happens to be one of my favorite places to hike in WA State. This was my third time and I got out of bed at 4:40am to try to hike at a time when there weren't a lot of people on the trail.

Very Happy To Be Back In One of My Favorite Places

This is likely one of the best hiking photos I've ever taken. It's from the upper ridge of the basin, near Foggy Lake. The direction is east, and the lake is Gothic Lake (FWIW The image is clickable, and downloadable).

Gothic Lake, Looking Down from the Foggy Lake Trail

There were some wonderful mountain views as you approach the basin itself:

Way In the Distance, On the Left, Is Mt. Pugh

This is what Gothic Lake looks like close-up. You can get from nearly any point to nearly any other point in the basin because the rocks are so smooth. It's an incredibly beautiful area to see.

Gothic Lake Is Lovely All Year Round

The water of Foggy Lake was crystal clear. The colors varied from copper & rust to blue & green:

The Colors in Foggy Lake Are Incredible

This hike is rated as "Difficult" by nearly every site that classifies these kinds of things. It's well-deserved, even though "2,800 feet of elevation gain" is not much ... and nor is the distance (~5 miles each way). I think it's because there's a lot of elevation gain that's over really rocky trail, and so you're doing a lot lot of extra work with each step to find a place to put your foot and maintain your balance.

This is the best I could do for a photo of foggy lake. It's a quick stitch of multiple photos:

A Composite of Foggy Lake (Four Photos)

(There's a 31MB composite image for download if you'd like to see Foggy Lake in all of it's glorious detail.