Hiking the Snow Creek Trail in late November

Friend Darren proposed a shoeshoe trek into the mountains over Thanksgiving....no skin off his teeth I found out later, he's Canadian born! But politely bowing out of the American family tradition went well (thanks family) and off we went Thanksgiving morning......into the western Washington pouring rain. Destination being The Enchantments, a famously scenic area in the central cascades near Leavenworth. The route via the snow creek trail is pretty ambitious even in summer. Starting at the 1300' trailhead and getting to the lower enchantments at 7000' is a full summer day. We were ready to see what we could do.

Low and behold the rain stopped about three miles before we arrived at the trailhead. Spirits high, we started up the trail in boots and 2 miles later the snowshoes came on.
One of the many things that went right for us on this trip was shoeshoe tracks for the first six miles to Nada Lake. No need for time consuming GPS navigation checks. This is Darren with Nada lake in the rear view mirror.
After Nada Lk the up got steeper and the snow deeper. And no more tracks to follow.
7.5miles, 4,100 feet and 8.5 hours later we trudged into to the Snow Lake basin. It is dusk now, we have burned off the family Thanksgiving meal we didn't have..... a couple of times over. Any thoughts of the Enchantments another 1.5 miles and 1400 vertical feet away are long gone. This would prove to be a very good decision. We are excited that we have yet to be rained on!
Needless to say we had our pick of campsites. A situation the envy of any summer Enchantments wanderer. Darren built us a stellar kitchen and dining room for our dehydrated Thanksgiving feast.

And it was good. The only place dehydrated food could possibly taste so great.

The night was reasonably warm, right around freezing. We stayed up taking photos until a wet snow fall forced us to the tent about 9pm.
The next day dawned sunny with 4" of new snow
Boot pack to our water source
The plan was onward and upward to the lower Enchantments for a day trip into the area that inspired this whole trip, a mere 1.5 miles and 1400 vertical feet away. The ridge to the right in this photo.
Mere turned out to be a poor choice of words due to stuff like this.

Still going.......
And 4 hours later we were finally there! Despite the slow go it was worth every step. These were the views from our perch above Lake Viviane
After getting adequately cold we headed back down to camp
We were rewarded with a clear sky and 3/4 moon that night, a great excuse for draining the camera battery on long exposures!
Entertaining oneself with camera equipment
The next morning it was time to break camp and head home
Who needs switchbacks when you have snowshoes and good snow! This area above Nada lake is subject to avalanches in less favorable snow conditions.
Nature's perfect snowcone
It was a remarkable trip. One where a person just shakes their head and can't figure out a way we could have been more fortunate with the weather and snow conditions. It certainly got us excited about future snow expeditions.