[Leavenworth, WA, Dec 24, 2023]

Due to the lack of snow even this late in December, we decided to go for a hike. At first we tried the little snow area close to town. But even though there wasn’t a lot of snow, the trails were closed for hiking. We could only go on them on showshoes, but there wasn’t nearly enough snow for that.

Our plan B was a well-rated trail close to town called Icicle Ridge Trail, so that’s where we headed.

The trail provides access to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, but we weren’t going to go nearly that far. We just wanted to make it 2.5 miles up to the overlook, which provides great views of the mountains around us and the valley below us.

The trail was steep and snow-free until about the half-way point. After that, it gradually became snow-covered until it was time to put on our microspikes. It was cloudy the whole time, but at least it was dry!

Although the clouds obscured some of the mountains around us, the view from the top was amazing. There was much more snow up there, too.

After taking some photos, we looked back to where we came from realized some weather was headed our way. This was consistent with the forecast, so we decided to not dillydally and started to head down.

We were not far along on our descent when it started snowing! We looked back up the trail and the cloud cover had definitely descended some more. I felt bad for the people going up, as they weren’t going to see anything.

This was a great little hike to get our exercise in on Christmas eve day! In the evening, we enjoyed a stroll among the Christmas lights again, had dinner at our hotel and enjoyed the outdoor hot tub.