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28 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain • 1 night

My dad and I did a overnight hike into the Enchanted Valley this past weekend.

We had perfect weather for the way in. Sunny, clear and in the high 60's.

We left the trailhead around 8 and arrived in the valley around 3:30. Could of done the hike faster, but we were taking our time and took a ton of pictures.

The trail is in very good condition.

Workers have cleared all blow downs for the first 4 miles. All other blow downs are easy to get over or around.

Wildlife is really out this time of year. We saw 2 small herd of elk (maybe 10 head in each, though I'm sure there were more we could not see), as well as 4 bears on the way in (2 of them 25-30 feet away and 2 of them 50 yards or more away) and 2 more in the valley. All the bears seemed mostly friendly and were more interested in the grass and bugs they were eating, than us.

There are a ton of creek crossings on the trail in but the only 'difficult' one is Pyrites Creek. The main log bridge is out, but their is a small log bridge that has been notched for safe crossing. It is narrow, but very cross-able.

As for snow, there is very little snow before Enchanted Valley, only one or two spots, of maybe a couple hundred feet long each that cover the trail.

The valley is mostly clear with spots of snow here and there.

A half mile past the last Enchanted Valley bear wire snow picks up but is melting pretty quickly and you can still get an excellent view of Anderson Glacier without too much trouble.

There are a couple of bears in the Valley. Two of them spent the evening wandering around our camp and visiting other people in the valley.

The rain stayed away until we crossed the bridge on the way out of the valley and then it rained for the next 13 miles. At least we had one dry day in the rainforest.

Comments

Chris, Kyle Meyer, jon, and Father Guido Sarducci heart this trip.

Kyle Meyer
May 24, 2012

I love this area. I seriously just got so excited to see this here.

Joshua Hudson
July 6, 2012

It was an epic hike. Saw some pictures from about a week ago and the whole valley is now bright bright green. Would be an amazing visit now. :)