Melakwa Lake — Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

We had a great fall hike to Melawka Lake today a great combination of dry weather and remaining fall colors at high elevation.  We pulled into the Denny Creek / Franklin Falls Th parking lot at 9:45, only 4 other cars were in the lot.  It was 46 degrees with partially sunny skies.  The vault toilets were open, clean and stocked with supplies.  I haven’t hiked to Melawka Lake since 2022 and it was great to see all the trail improvements the last couple years.  The entire trail is now saturated, well drained soil.  Brilliant orange red foliage on vine maples, huckleberry and blueberry plants still dot the hill sides.  Fall is fleeting as there was still a bit of snow on the ground up at Hemlock Pass from the first snow fall of the year last weekend. This will most likely be our last mountain hike of the year.  Denny Creek has some flowing water, but it’s still a trickle. Pika’s were alerting on all the rocky scree slopes, and we saw a few chipmunks, squirrels, juncos, wren, gray jays and a dipper playing in the lake.  Trail traffic was really light we passed a few small groups in each direction and a trail runner dressed only in shorts.  With lots of rest and photo breaks we walked up to the lake just after 1:00.  It was a cool 48 degrees and clouds started flying by overhead.  There was no real easy crossing over the outlet stream and it required rocking hopping, stepping on wiggly branches and log jams.  The lake level was the lowest I’ve ever seen and there was a small beach area where we sat down for a lunch rest break.  We chilled down quickly adding back most of our clothing layers. Knowing we should be back at the Th by 5:30 we started our descent just after 2:00. The upper section of the trail above rock slide area at 1.5 miles is a thigh burner going up and down.  The extended scree slope areas had uneven rock surfaces and huge. To our surprise we passed a couple groups heading up the trail  late afternoon. I hope they had headlamps for their descent. My All Trails App stats were 9.6 Miles, 2,733’ Ele Gain. When we drove out at 5:40 we spotted a couple elk down by Snoqualmie River as we approached the onramp for I- 90.  Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.