Lake Rachel Trail

The hike to Lake Rachel travels through a very scenic four mile stretch of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area in the Washington Cascade Mountains. This very popular hike starts out rather easy as it travels though a creek valley for the first three miles, with nice stands of fir, cedar, and hemlock. Then it runs into the mountain side and the going gets fairly tough but has some very nice scenery with numerous waterfalls, and views of the valley and surrounding mountains. The lake sits near the top of the peak in some awesome scenery that photographs just don't seem to be to quite capture to its fullest. All together this hike is four miles long, and gains 2000 feet in elevation with the majority of that in the last mile.

Above: A view of the scenery just before the trail starts up the last mile.
I did this hike with two of my cousins from Yakima during the middle of July and found it to be really enjoyable. It provide some great exercise and a good chance to get away from the rat race in the Puget Sound although don't expect to come here to find solitude because your won't!! Like every hike that you do for the first time it seemed like it was a lot more than an 8 mile round trip but was worth every step of it. The only down falls of the day were first that the wind at the lake was howling so while it was in the 80's or 90's everywhere else in the state if felt like it was only in the low 60's or upper 50's at the lake. This also made fly fishing a very interesting task with casts coming by to close to comfort. The other down point was when I twisted my ankle twice about three miles out from the trailhead on the way out, which things interesting once again....

Above Photos from the hike in
Left: My cousins along the stream. Right: A water fall near the beginning of the steep section of the hike.
Below: Left: My cousin attempting to figure out how to put a fly rod together, Right: A view of the surroundings.

Fly Fishing Opportunities: This lake does offer some decent fishing for Westslope Cutthroat which should be released as they do not seem to be overly abundant. The wind can make fly fishing rather difficult at times, but if you can tough it out at the windward side there should be some feeding trout. Trout in this lake tend to hang off of drop offs or cruise the shoreline looking for food. The average lake patterns work well here, such as woolly buggers, zug bugs, and attractor dries like the royal pmx.

Directions: The trail begins near the end of forest service road 4930, which is a well maintained gravel road that can be reached by taking exit 63 off I-90 on the eastern side of Snoqualmie Pass. Once off of the exit take the turn toward Lake Kachess and follow the road to its end at the Lake Kachess campground, take a left up the gravel road instead of going to the campground, and follow it to the trailhead.