Dorothy Lake Backpacking Trip

Dorothy Lake

We had planned to go backpacking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness this weekend through Deception Pass, but Friday morning when we drove through Snoqualmie Pass, we saw how smoky it was in Eastern Washington. After driving all the way to Roslyn, we decided to turn around and head back to the western side of the Cascades. We picked out another hike that starts up the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River.

On Friday we hiked up to Snoqualmie Lake and since that didn't take long, we continued past Deer and Bear Lakes, and down to Dorothy Lake. The ceiling was pretty low and Deer and Bear Lakes were completely in the clouds. Dorothy and Snoqualmie Lakes weren't too bad. The good thing about the cloud cover was that it didn't cool off at night.

We were all packed for a two-night trip, but when given that the weather wasn't great and there weren't many options for extending our hike from Dorothy Lake, we decided just to head back on Saturday. It was even foggier on the hike back! There were some cool waterfalls though, and it wasn't very cold.

This is a good place to do an easy-access one night backpacking trip. It would have even been nice to hang out for another night if the views had been better. From the Middle Fork access though, the first six miles are easy (on an old logging road) but also not very exciting and the climb up to Snoqualmie Lake isn't too bad.