Lake Serene is situated east of Seattle on Route 2 a bit past Gold Bar, WA which is itself near to Wallace Falls State Park. There is some 2,000 feet in elevation gain from the trailhead to the Lake Serene. There is a small diversion of about 1 mile up to a viewpoint of the falls some 1.6 miles from the trailhead. It is definitely worth the time it takes to hike up to see the falls up close. Once back to the main trail it is another 2 miles to Lake Serene which, as of today, was just at the snow line. I always love walking into a snow-line in the middle of summer after a few hours sweating up the side of a mountain; drenched in sweat there is nothing quite like walking into a natural refrigerator to spend some time relaxing. Given that it was already 4:30pm when I arrived at the lake I did not spend more than enough time to cool down and take a breather before heading back down before the loss of light while in the shadow of the mountain. It was an amazing afternoon all the more given that I did not leave Seattle till nearly 1pm and still got back to Rainin’ Ribs (best bar-b-que in North Seattle) before closing time to pick up some smoked baby-back ribs for dinner while working on these pictures. And to the bit of sunshine in a blue jacket: thanks for the smiles.
You can see all the pictures here.
