West Fork Foss Lakes Trail

The thermometer is rising. The sun is beating down upon us with a sweltering heat wave. No sense suffering here when I can do so on the mountainside. So with my backpack - packed and a fresh vision quest ahead of me, I again stepped forth into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area for another quest into Mother Natures Wonderland.

I chose the West Fork Foss River trail, sometimes called the West Foss Lakes trail, to again enjoy an opportunity to experience another chain of Alpine Lakes that the trail parallels. Trout Lake, Lake Malachite, Copper Lake, Little Heart Lake and Big Heart Lake are five jewels nestled beneath jagged cliffs along the trails nine point three mile length. This special spot is likely to hook everyone who gravitates toward seemingly endless alpine lakes surrounded by rugged glacier carved peaks, clear streams and waterfalls.

As you enter the trailhead at 1690 feet, it is all up, up and away from there. Funny, it always seems to be uphill from the trailhead. But your first one and a half miles should be an easy scant up to Trout Lake. This lake which is nestled at about twenty one hundred feet, is surrounded by tall cedars and rising mountainsides. The lakes emerald green and reflective blue surface is a welcoming site on any hot day. There are many cool campsites along the trail and a few on the lake shore. This is a nice cool spot for an early luncheon and pictures.

After Trout Lake, the trail starts to steepen significantly with gains of eighteen hundred feet in two miles, till you reach the Lake Malachite cut off. At which point you will climb an additional two hundred feet to the lakeshore. But, between Trout and Lake Malachite, you will have opportunities to gaze in wonderment of some centuries old growth cedar. In fact, one prime example is a six hundred year old Red Cedar right along the trails path. You will be trekking along the trail and see one specimen and note, “That must be it.”, and then there will be another. Followed by another. And then finally, you will know it when you see it. And when you do, you too will agree, “What an example of Mother Natures work.”

It should also be noted that while hiking between Trout Lake and Lake Malachite, the trail is rather dry and on a hot summer day, the sun can be merciless. So it might be wise to tackle this portion early in the morning, when your energy is high and the temperatures are low. Along the trail path you will have an opportunity to view a rather large waterfall. I would venture to guess, five hundred feet. There are a couple spots in which you can snap up some pictures, but nothing clear enough to view the falls full length. But, take pictures anyway. It is a magnificent waterfall which is feed from outlets from Lake Malachite, Copper and an Unknown Lake.

The trail cut off up to Lake Malachite is a little difficult to follow, but worth the effort. Once you arrived at the lake, you’ll just stand and soak in all of this lakes beautiful turquoise to sapphire blue and emerald green lake surface. All of which is surrounded by snow patched glacier peaks under a bright blue sky. And to top it all off, the fish were also jumping. I then decided to find a campsite and promptly set forth to do so. After settling in, I stepped forth and went fishing. I worked all of the lakeshore that I could and caught fourteen rainbow trout, the largest being fourteen inches. I released them all and then settled in for the day. As sunset drifted past the jagged cliffs and the blue skies melted into the blackness of night, the stars brought forth a bright starry night. and sweet dreams it was.

Hiking in the backwoods is a wonderful recreational activity, even with all the difficulties that the trail may bring. But, when you get to your destination for the day and after you have been sapped of what strength you may have, you come to the realization that you have a number of chores to attend too. Find a campsite, unpack, set up camp, cook a meal, just to mention a few. Then when morning arises, you are again faced with additional chores. Last of which would be breaking camp and packing it back up again. For me, all I want is to be on the trail. All the in-between stuff I secretly wish was already done when I arrive. Yes, I know; to do that would be taking away a good part of the wilderness experience. When others would crawl through the desert begging for,
“Water .... Water.” I would be walking through the desert asking for, “Room service.”
But, I guess that would take away from the experience, also.

So it was not that much different when I awoke in the morning and was faced with the daunting chores of survival and noticed that my barometer reading had dropped overnight, and that there were a few clouds overhead. I was not much worried about it, after all, the weatherman had forecast, “Sunny, bright blue skies.”, for the next few days. After all, who could pass up a wilderness trip with sunny days ahead? I scurried about my chores and flung my backpack upon my shoulders, cinched myself up and stepped forth onto the trail.

Then the clouds opened up. It wasn’t much at first, just a few little drops from a passing cloud overhead. And then, just like a water bucket opening up from a helicopter fighting a forest fire, the clouds dumped all of what they had onto me. What was it that weatherman said? So the rain came and the thunderstorms pounded away in the distance. But, I did not let it dampen my spirts. I trudged on and was thankful that the rain at least helped keep the bug activity down. After all, what choice do you have but to take what Mother Nature dishes out?

Continuing along the trail I finally came along Copper Lake. This is a large beautiful lake nestled below granite cliffs and forested mountain slopes. The trail becomes more friendly, but it’s still an upward climb as it traverses southward above the eastern shore of Copper Lake. There are not many campsites along the Copper Lake shoreline, but if you are one to pack a infallible raft, you can find good campsites across the lake on its western shore. If one was inclined to scrambled to the lakeshore, you might find your activities a little venturesome. Some of the trail passes through some granite rock slide areas and scrambling to the lakeshore could be a challenge in of itself. But, good campsites along the shoreline can be found in this manner. So care should be exercised.

Copper Lake was not my destination for the day, so I continued along and trekked upward to Little Heart Lake. During this section of the hike, a new trail is being blazed east of the Little Heart outlet creek. When it is completed, you will save some distance and the required crossings of the creek outlet. Besides, the old trail west of the creek outlet is muddy, soggy, wet and generally, not a pleasure. Once you come up above the creek and approach Little Heart, you enter an open meadow area with wild flowers blossoming and some cool shade trees. Campsites for Little Heart can be found along its north shore. There are a few along the shoreline and a few more offering the cool shade of tall cedar trees to help cool you down from the pounding of the relentless summer sun.

Little Heart is a beautiful jewel of a lake. It is not large and you can comfortably sit and turn your head and see all that there is to see. A nice clear lake nestled at about forty two hundred feet below granite mountains and cooling forest. As mentioned before, the reflected water colors giving off mirror images of the lakes surrounding environment and testimony of its hidden depths; range from crystal clear, merging into the blue of turquoise and then deeper into the blues of sapphire. Then finally the restful emerald tones of green. You have all of this luxury and a grand view of Silver Eagle Peak to boot.

But, it doesn’t end there. You can be sitting and soaking in all of Mother Natures beauty, and then all of a sudden you’ll hear, “Plop - Plop.” And then again, “Plop - Plop.” You turn your head and then witness the residents of Little Heart Lakes rainbow trout, feeding off the bugs that are swarming about you. The fish seem to be oblivious of the presence of man. So, fishing is the order of the day. I can set up camp later. I caught three more trout that afternoon, the largest being about twelve inches. I released them all.

I liked Little Heart Lake, but it was time to venture on to its big sister, Big Heart Lake. So I broke camp. Packed up the backpack, tossed it onto my back, cinched it up and stepped onto the trail again. Oh yes, to be on the trail. I proceeded southward again and climb along the trails path till I reached its crest at about forty nine hundred feet. But, along the way I had an opportunity to gaze upon some spectacular vistas of Glacier Peak and Clark Mountain. Again, ‘click - click’ goes the camera.

Once you crest the trail up to Big Heart Lake, you get your first views of the snow patched jagged peaks above Big Heart. But you will have to work for it. The climb is strenuous, but the rewards are worth it. Besides, you have gone this far, you might as well finish it. After the crest, the trail descends to the lakeshore for about a mile, at which point you will have to cross the lakes outlet. It is an easy enough crossing with plenty enough logs to traverse. But, what is interesting about the crossing is that the outlet creek proceeds for about fifty feet, then descends into a cascading waterfall over a cliffs edge, which you can not see. All of a sudden, the water disappears, but you know where it is going.

There are a few good campsites along the way and the trail ends shortly after the creek crossing. The one campsite that I liked the most, is one that I called, ‘Table Rock’. It is visible from the crossing and identifiable by a huge flat slab of granite rock right on the lakes shoreline. It hugs the deep waters of the lake which are very inviting on a hot summer day.

Big Heart has a charm all of its own, with a splendid beauty of deep cold waters and high jagged cliffs, laced with towering spruce and cedar is ever much as beautiful as Yosemite. Okay, that may be bit of a stretch, but it is gorgeous and it is worth every effort to come to such a showcase. You won’t find this on I-Max, nor will you see it on the Discovery channel. You will only enjoy it by placing one foot in front of the other along the Alpine Wilderness West Foss Lakes River Trail.

To start your adventure just link yourself via the links listed below.

West Fork Foss Lakes Trail - Directions

West Fork Foss Lakes Trail - Maps

West Fork Foss Lakes Trail - Pictures