Mileage: 14.6 RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 3300/4900ft
Map: Green Trails Skykomish No 175 and Stevens Pass No 176
My favorite places to stop post hike with friends are: Grilla Bites, Route 2 Taproom and Grazing Place, Good Brewing Company, River House Cafe, Espresso Chalet, Gustav’s, Yodelin’s Broth Company, South, Dan’s Food Market, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike Details:
West Fork Foss River is a popular trail that leads to a chain of 5 dazzling alpine lakes with further possibilities beyond in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Busy on the weekends with day hikers and campers alike, there is room for plenty of outdoor solitude.
The first two miles are mild and cross the West Fork Foss on a sturdy bridge to arrive at Trout Lake. From here your climb begins on switchbacks to reach Copper Lake. A short side trail to Malachite Lake is possible at the junction.
Then, you are on to Little and Big Heart Lakes which offer snow covered cirques and more solitude. Arrive early on the weekend if you plan to camp!
My trip reports:
7/21/17-7/23/17 (26.1 miles RT), my GAIA, USGS Big Snow Mountain, 4463/6053ft (6021ft in ascent, 3053ft descent)
The ladies and I headed up the West Fork Foss Lakes trail for the weekend with some planning to go as far as Big Heart and two of us with plans to venture to Iron Cap Mountain and as far as we could get towards Necklace Valley. I have taken this trail multiple times as a day hike but this was my first backpacking trip. I knew the trail would be harder to follow and much more scramble-like after Big Heart, so I packed as light as I could. (20lbs total).
We left the almost full parking lot Friday morning around 10am. I spent most of the hike noticing the differences on the trail from when I was here last in May of 2016. The downed trees were cleared and the avalanche slide just before Trout Lake is now a beautifully defined trail. Yay to trail volunteers! We passed a few families (one with stroller) and a Boy Scout troop heading out who had been camping at Trout so the lake was deserted when we got there.
The climb to Copper Lake was its usual brushy, sloughing tread experience and we had a bright sunny day to sweat up those switchbacks in. It’s important to watch your step here, those rocks you are maneuvering around are supposed to be the outside of the trail, too far to the outslope and it’s an easy slip off the tread. The thimbleberry, tiger lilies and beargrass are all out in force, but it was too soon for picking any yummy treats.
I talked the gals into a side trip to Malachite for lunch; I have never taken the time to go before. It’s a steep little jaunt, if you are backpacking don’t be afraid to drop your pack at the junction (4 miles in and 3800ft) and just take your essentials up. I’d like to say we had the lake to ourselves, but the mosquitos kept us company while we ate and took in the view of Malachite Peak above.
Then it was on to Copper, Little Heart and Big Heart. The traffic was mostly heading out; we only saw one tent at Copper (4.7 miles in and 3900ft) across the outlet for the lake. As you climb from Little Heart, don’t forget to stop and admire the view back down of Trout Lake and the mountains lined up the distance.
We could see Sloan and Glacier, as well as Snowking, Excelsior, Columbia, Malachite, Fortune, Scorpion and many more. After stopping at the viewpoint (6.8 miles in and 4900ft) for Delta Lake and Nazanne (with a peak at Angeline) we begin the switchbacks back down to Big Heart by 5pm for our first night of camping (7.6 miles in and 4575ft). I must say I was surprised no one was there and we had the place to ourselves.
We opted for the third site up the ridge from the lake outlet with room for 3 tents and my hammock. Not only did we enjoy the amazing scenery, the new pit toilet was pretty nice, too. I will say the best trees for hanging bear bag are close to here unless you want to walk all the way up the ridge.
The trail goes up and down a bit on the ridge and some spots you will need your hands to maneuver around vegetation but the main trail is distinct. There are plenty of boot paths were people have ventured off for a viewpoint of Big Heart or Angeline.
The trail is also trenched in quite a few places, try to avoid stepping on vegetation when off trail and step on durable surfaces like rock. There was just one itty, bitty patch of snow on the whole ridge; the sun is doing its summer job!
From here, some of us headed back to Big Heart and then down to Copper for the second night while my friend and I (both Mountaineers) continued on towards Chetwoot Lake. Once we got over the high point of the ridge between Big Heart and Angeline (about 5260ft), the trail heads down towards the saddle between the two lakes.
The trail was still easy to follow but there were many places you were climbing down and over rock to continue.
There were a mystical string of tarns and just a bit of snow as we then made our way back up and over to the largest tarn on this part of the trail before you drop down to Chetwoot Lake.
The snow was still hanging on here giving the tarn a beautiful turquoise blue and ridge surrounding Chetwoot reflecting in its waters. We had approached this tarn a bit off trail to avoid the snow chute that still covers the official trail (there were tarns directing to the rock slabs on the right of the snow). I have this thing about walking on snow that has the sound of water running underneath it.
From the tarn, we headed down to lunch at Chetwoot. The trail here is steep, rocky, trenched and muddy, probably why we saw a lot of damage to the vegetation on the sides. The trail crosses the outlet to Chetwoot but we opted to hop the rocks and log jam to get to the lake directly rather than cross the stream first.
I could see the ridge of Iron Cap and I was excited to try and summit her today. Chetwoot was a much larger lake than I imagined and we sat to eat and watch the white puffy clouds roll by overhead in the sky that had turned blue from the earlier gray we had hiking in.
After our lunch break at the lake, we continued to follow the boot path away from Chetwoot. This was a bit tricky from the lakeshore as there are multiple social trails and boulder fields but we eventually connected with the one that took us over along Little Chetwoot and towards Azure Lake. There was another boulder field to scramble over (the stream between Little Chetwoot and Azure). The trail is very faint here, I imagine because people just cross the talus and head in the general direction of Azure.
Just as we came along the contour line above Azure and could see down at the lake, we looked up and saw a gully heading up towards the slope of Iron Cap at 5029ft. It looked just right for our ascent and so we headed up over the rocks with the ridgeline in our sight.
This took us up about 100ft and then we curved around a little knob (with amazing views of the lakes below) to head east and up towards the ridge, opting again to avoid a snow field. The route was fairly easy and I was able to peer down into Iron Cap Lake about 3:25pm and 5880ft. It was just starting to thaw out and there were a few patches of snow left in the basin with the ridge appearing snow free. Almost there!
The scramble to the ridge at 6056ft took about 20 minutes, if only because the rock was a bit more loose on the approach. But oh my, the views! The lineup of mountains, Little Big Chief and Summit Chief were right there in your face. The lakes we had come from were lined up off in the distance. It was breathtaking.
I was ready to continue along the ridge towards the summit (and then over and down towards Otter Lake as was our plan) when my friend froze up and decided the ridge walk was not something she could do. So, unfortunately it was back down to a lower route for us and our odds of completing the loop were greatly diminished. Getting down off the mountain we took a more westerly descent over the rock and granite slabs and came down and over the snow field back to connect with the trail above Azure around 5:30pm.
The distance around to Otter was not far but we were getting tired and I knew camping options would be limited. The other side of Azurite Lake appeared to offer some level ground on the map but we would have to make it around its steep banks first.
We managed to make it down the slope to Azurite Lake through rock and downed trees and along the boulder lined shore before deciding that was as far as we would make it for the day safely (the trail had came to a ledge after the talus field and a stretch of steep forest and there was a stressful period when my friend would neither go forward or backwards). I was really worried for her, it was the closest I have ever come to pushing the SAR button on a PLB.
There was no campsite due to the angle of the terrain but luckily my friend spied a boulder with just enough room for our tent and we perched ourselves for the night. There was a stream about 50 feet away but neither of us were interested in anything but sleep and settled in for the night. I knew then disappointingly that we would not be making the loop to Necklace Valley and could only hope to get us safely back to the West Fork trailhead.
Sunday, we turned back for the long haul out. Luckily the terrain was more familiar as we made our way back to the trailhead at 7pm. We didn’t see anyone during our time between Chetwoot and Azurite, and the lake campsites along the West Fork Foss were more occupied than when we headed in on Friday.
There were day hikers swimming and a handful of overnighters heading into an already full Copper Lake. I hope to go back and complete the loop over the summit when the opportunity presents itself!
4/8&9/2016 (8.4 miles RT)
This trip report is actually for two, I had so much fun making it up to Copper Lake by myself in the snow the first time I went again with the bf. I wrote more about it in my post, Snowshoes and Snowpeas.
I’ll mention first that the only reason I made it to Copper was because I am familiar with the trail and had a map, snowshoes, spikes and poles. There is still a TON of snow after the log foot bridge and before the junction with Malachite Lake. There is NO trail to follow and deep postholing without snowshoes.
I started yesterday at 8:10 and it took about 10 minutes to get through the log jam/landslide on the road. Not bad but tricky with poles and snowshoes on my pack. The mile road walk to the trailhead included a water crossing where there is a concrete reinforcement on the road. It was a few inches deep and no real way to rock hop. I made it to Trout Lake by 9:30am, no snow on trail. There was a significant landslide just before the lake, keep to the left as you are so close.
Most of the downed tree gymnastics are between Trout and the exposed switchbacks section. It’s spring so bugs and spiderwebs are back but mostly gnats. At the large downed cedar tree stay right to keep with the trail. The snow patches are still on the switchbacks but melting fast. Expect postholing. The brush is taking over the trail so maneuvering is necessary. I had just trail runners and poles at this point and didn’t have any problems.
There is a stream crossing before the log foot bridge where the water is coming down over and it is hard to see where to step. Also, a steep snow bank on the other side. The fun began at the log foot bridge because the snow banks to get up on and off it are 4-5ft high. I put my spikes on to be safe. There were tracks to follow over.
I kept my spikes on and followed foot prints for about 40 ft and then nothing. I had a general direction so I kept going but it wasn’t long before I had to put snow shoes on. The drifts are deep and soft with the sun. Even today, my tracks from yesterday were mostly gone. Between here and the junction I read my map multiple times and basically headed straight up and to the left in the direction I knew it to be in.
Amazingly, I came up about 5ft from the sign to Copper. Here, it took me 3 attempts to make it up to Copper Lake. The first two I strayed left and ended up on snow bridges and what appeared to be a tarn with no safe way to head to the outlet for the lake. On the map it looked like the trail went around this way but nothing looked right with all the snow. I ended up back at the junction on my third try and just went straight up and around the tarn/clearing and ended up at Copper by 12:45 but not via the normal trail so I was counterclockwise a bit from the outlet.
It was so gorgeous! I had it all to myself the first time and for the second day we were alone until about 2pm when some other folks came up postholing in our tracks w/o shoes or poles. Yesterday, a gentleman I passed going down who had a dog decided to not go past the foot bridge because of the snow bank, no gear and the dog. Both trips down saw the sun doing its work, soft smushy snow and postholing. Each day was about 8 hours from car and back.
7/11/2015
We did this one as a trainer for our Wonderland Trail trip the next week. My friend was just getting back into backpacking and so it was a good way to test out his pack and gear.
The first part of the trail to Trout Lake was level and uneventful and the best part is that huge tree that everyone loves to have their picture taken with, including me! Right before you get to the lake there is evidence of repeated slides from the steep slopes of Malachite on your right. There were a few tents at the lake and plenty of good spots for camping.
We continued on around the lake and up towards Copper Lake. Those switchbacks get you climbing and the cascading waterfall from the outlet to the lake meets you at every other turn beckoning you on. Pictures can be hard to get because of trees and brush but the roar is impressive. There was a lovely foot bridge over the outlet of Malachite and then we continued a bit further through the the trees and soon we reached the sign for the junction of Copper and Malachite Lakes.
From there we made it to Copper Lake, crossing over its outlet on large, well spaced boulders but only stopped briefly for a snack as our destination was to Big Heart. I had been here three months before when snow covered the trail and so it was interesting the difference making it around the lake without postholing and fear of slipping down into the icy water.
It isn’t that much further to Little Heart (1.3 miles), the trail follows the water flowing between the two lakes. The trail does go through some boulders as you approach Little Heart.
After a few pictures, it was on to Big Heart. Here the trail has some tight switchbacks and hugs the slope, one of the reasons I didn’t go further in my last trip. When we got to the high point 1.1 miles from Little Heart, we took the boot path to the viewpoint and gazed at Delta Lake below. Then it was down some more switchbacks to Big Heart.
The glacial waters here are picturesque and stunning. Even the outlet with its green mossy waterfall was arresting. We wandered the logs and sat for lunch, reluctant to leave.
Our trip back repeated our views of this chain of lakes and left me wanting to return to do a backpacking trip of the loop with the East Fork through Necklace Valley.
4/15/2015 (11 miles RT)
This was one of those shoulder season hikes where being first on the trail meant making my way through deep but melting snow and a little route finding. I did this hike before I had either snowshoes or spikes, either one might have come in handy. I didn’t do too bad in my trailrunners, it was just a bit wet!
My first time on the trail, I was glad that it was pretty much snow free past Trout Lake and up the switchbacks to the junction with Malachite Lake. From here there were patches of snow on the trail and footprints making it easy to get to Copper Lake. The lake was thawed out at the outlet and made a beautiful reflection of the surrounding snowy slopes. From here, it was easy to make my way around the lake as the trail hugs the shore but the bootprints had stopped at Copper where most folks had turned around. The hard part was the knee-deep snow and postholing that threatened to send me down into the lake if I slipped too much downhill. On this side, the lake was still frozen over, waiting for weather temperatures to free it.
Even harder as knowing exactly where to turn from the lake and head towards Little Heart without a trail. I had pulled out my map and assessed it ran a fairly typical route along the stream between the two lakes but this meant climbing up waist-high snow and postholing into a ribbon of melting ice water that was supposed the trail. At some points I was crawling along the top of the snow in an effort to distribute my weight and stay above the snow.
It was a little bit sketchy going over the scree boulders that make up the trail just before you get the lake and with hopes of not sinking in and turning an ankle, I hopped/crawled across the snow-covered rocks to eventually make to the lake. I stopped here on the logs of the outlet and enjoyed lunch deciding to make this my turn around based on the amount of snow still left from winter. Little Heart was covered in its winter coat, denying that spring had come. It wasn’t long before some backpackers came up behind having benefited from my trail breaking to find a flat spot to camp on the other side of the outlet.
My way back was made that much easier having a path to follow, although I did skip around a few areas knowing better this time. Plenty of hikers were on the trail as I descended, again having an easier time with tracks in the snow to follow. I knew I’d be back to make it all the way to Big Heart lake when the snow had receded for the summer.
Directions: Take Hwy 2 to just past the Skykomish Ranger station and turn right on Foss River Road (FR 68). In 2.6 miles cross under the railroad trestle and go over a small bridge. In another mile is a Y intersection, stay right. The left fork goes to the Tonga Ridge Trail. In another 0.6 miles, pass by the TH for the Necklace Valley Trail, and continue on Road 68. In 0.7 miles, be alert for a left turn onto Road 6835. The map makes it look like FR 68 continues to the TH, but it does not. Continue on this rougher FR (6835) for 1.9 miles to reach the TH, for a total of 6.7 miles from HWY 2. At the TH, there is a privy. A NW Forest Pass is required.
For more hikes on HWY 2, click HERE.
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