Oval Lakes, Eagle Creek — Saturday, Jul. 1, 2000

North Cascades > Methow/Sawtooth

We went to the ""dry"" side of the Cascades for the four day weekend for a camping trip to Oval Lakes. The drive to the trailhead was 220 miles from Seattle via the HWY 20 route. The entire trail is in great condition. The crossing of Eagle Creek shortly after you get on trail 410A (Oval Creek) is a little tricky. After that it is a beautiful forest walk. Snow patches start at about 6,500' but do not present navigation problems. There are lots of great camp spots at West Oval Lake, with great views of the lake and cliffs behind it. Sunday we went to the other Oval Lakes, which required descending a bit to the trail junction, then switchbacking up to 7,500'. There are big, steep snowfields over the trial on the north side of Gray Peak but they were easy to cross and most had safe a runout. Frequent snow patches continued to Middle and East Oval Lake. We saw plenty of fish in every lake. The easy 500' hike up Gray Peak from the pass on the way to Middle and East Oval Lakes is worth the effort -- it offers spectacular views across Lake Chelan to the mountains of the North Cascades and Glacer Peak areas! On Monday morning we woke up to SNOW... 3"" of it and more falling quickly. It turned into rain at approx. 5,500'. We sang Christmas Carols on the way out. The Sawtooths are a very beautiful area. Very scenic. We saw two other parties at the lake. On the way back, the grub at the Winthrop Brewery was stupendous.