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Trip Report    

Basic Snowshoe - Reflection Lakes

Seven of us enjoyed breaking trail in wonderful powdery snow to Reflection Lakes and back. We had some snowfall after leaving the parking area at Narada Falls and enjoyed a relaxing lunch overlooking the frozen lake and Tatoosh Range peeking in and out of cloud cover.

Diann Sheldon Diann Sheldon
February 02, 2022
  • Snow and ice on road

  • The weather forecast called for temperatures in the low 30's with wind chill temps lowering in the 20's. One to three inches of new snow was predicted. We found conditions very favorable as the predicted wind gusts were minimal along our route. With several days of snow prior to our visit and the gate had been closed up to Paradise, we found fresh/clean snow all the way to Reflection Lakes. 

    We followed the trail from the Comfort Station at the Narada Falls parking lot up to Stevens Canyon Road and followed the trail up to the ridge and then down to the lake via the Lower Lakes Trail. The group did a wonderful job of sharing the role of breaking trail along with a few other snowshoers outside of our group. The snow was light and fluffy which made the job much easier. The route markers were all in place and greatly helped in route finding. (As this was a Basic Snowshoe and avalanche conditions were considerable, we avoided using Stevens Canyon Road to Reflection Lake.)

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Snowfall lasted about 40 minutes during the beginning of our trek. The group traveled comfortably adjusting layers as we climbed and broke trail. Once at Reflection Lakes, we found a great spot for our group of 7 to enjoy a lunch break with views of the lake, The Castle and Pinnacle Peak. We even had a Great Blue Heron fly over us and land not too far away. We enjoyed watching it fly over the frozen lake against a snowy backdrop. Quite a fun surprise!

After a nice break, we ventured back to the Narada Falls parking lot the same way we came in enjoying the trail we had made going in! :) 

We were all happy that the gate to Paradise opened (it was a later opening around 9:30) and were able to snowshoe this wonderful route. The road from Kautz Creek was ice/snow covered and 2WD vehicles had to chain up. Snow and ice covered most of the road up to the Narada Falls parking lot.

This was a new trail for several members today and a fun, successful trip!

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