Twelve months of visits to a mountain lake tells more than twelve tales. The solitude found during a Wednesday in the winter is completely different than the chaos found on a Saturday in the summer. The seasons make one set of changes. We make the other. The combination produces a much more interesting set of experiences that can't be revealed in one visit or in a page of some guidebook. Barclay Lake sits about an hour northeast of Seattle on the soggy side of the Cascade Mountains. It is an easy hike within challenging terrain and is one of those rare places where the extremes of hiking can...

Twelve months of visits to a mountain lake tells more than twelve tales. The solitude found during a Wednesday in the winter is completely different than the chaos found on a Saturday in the summer. The seasons make one set of changes. We make the other. The combination produces a much more interesting set of experiences that can't be revealed in one visit or in a page of some guidebook.

Lake Valhalla is perched along the high, rugged crest of the Cascade Mountains. It is wrapped within the Glacier Peak Wilderness and sits along the Pacific Crest Trail. Getting there in the summer can be...