Rainy Lake Trail

Author's Comments

There is a particular kind of disbelief that comes with arriving somewhere this dramatic without having earned it. Rainy Lake is a flat paved walk from the parking lot, less than a mile in, and at the end of it you are standing at the edge of a cirque that looks like it should require ropes and a permit. The cliffs rise straight out of the water. A waterfall comes off the headwall and falls directly into the lake, and on a still morning in late August the whole amphitheater doubles itself in the surface. I prefer this trail in early morning, before the wind picks up and ruins the reflection. The light does not reach into the cirque until late, which means the lake stays in shadow while the upper cliffs catch the first sun, and that contrast is the photograph. A wide lens is the right tool here. So is patience for the air to settle. The accessibility is worth saying plainly. This is one of the only alpine lakes in the North Cascades that anyone can reach, regardless of what their legs will do that day, and that feels like a small grace in a range that mostly demands a great deal from you. Highway 20 closes for the winter, so the window is summer through October. The larches turn in late September if you time it right, and the upper slopes go gold against the gray rock in a way that I have not quite managed to photograph adequately yet. I keep going back to try.

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