The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Best swimming lakes for late summer
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Jennie and Craig discuss their favorite hikes to swimming lakes in Washington
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Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming,
and I'm your co-host Craig Romano.
Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive.
All right, Craig, today here we are, peak summer. Hottest days of the year usually, I know
You don't like to heat you any I love the heat. I grew up in the East coast and, anyone who's from the east coast knows that heat comes with humidity back there. Yeah, not here.
And one of the things I absolutely loved, in my youth, . Going hiking back in the White Mountains or going for these long bike rides, is just jumping into a lake afterwards. And the beautiful thing about the Northeast, there's a lot of lakes and they warm up in the summertime unlike the northwest where there's a lot of lakes, but they don't necessarily warm up.
They do not.
No,
But with that said, we're gonna talk about some of our favorite places to, to make that. Plunge to literally make the plunge. Yes. Where we like to go for a quick dive, a quick swim. Yeah. I know. I have colleagues out there. That's all they do. They can't hike to a lake without jumping into it.
Doesn't matter.
Ooh, I can, I don't do it very often. I,
I can't do that either. And I have my limits too. And I just want you to know that I did plunge in Crater Lake and it was brutal. I could only get halfway. Submerged in Lake Superior. I was singing soprano. I couldn't do it anymore. I had to be out of there.
Yeah. So I do have my still. So
One thing I will say, just a couple things about safety before we dive into this. So number one, you really do have to pay attention to public health. Warnings about absolutely different lakes, especially with climate change, some of these algae blooms. Oh yeah. And things are a bigger deal than they used to be.
So yeah, you gotta stay on top of that for both you and your pets. And then the other thing just is that a lot of our lakes stay very cold all year. Yeah. Just, and that's fine, but you need to just be prepared. Some people have a gasp reflex when they jump in cold water. You can get hypothermic pretty fast, even though on a hot day.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, because this is a great thing about summer, but just a couple safety notes before we drive it. Dive in.
No, it's good you mention that. And every year a couple things. Now we're talking about that. Yeah. If your heart's weak, you're not in the best shape.
People have heart attacks when they jump into some of this stuff. So you need to be a concern that if your heart isn't where you want it to be strong that shock in the water people have died of heart attacks in there. So that's certainly the other concern I wanna make too.
We talk about our personal safety, which is really important, our pets. But also, integrity of the lakes themselves. Yeah. You think about there's certain lakes I won't swim into because that might be the only water source for a camping area. So you think about that. Yeah. Think about the bacteria on you, the fecal matter, things like that.
That's, yeah. Not good. Also, sunscreen. I grease up like a son of a gun when I'm out there running. Yeah. You don't wanna go into the lake after that because that's toxic in the water. So again, a lot of these areas where a lot of people are jumping in the water you're polluting it, in essence.
Yeah. And bringing the integrity down. And there are, there, there are definitely lakes. Out there that land managers would like you not to swim in. Image Lake is one of the ones in that they it's, they would prefer that you don't swim in it, so please heed. Yeah. Any warning it says no swimming, don't sue it.
If it's a water source, for a park or anything like that that they have, definitely pay attention to that.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So with all that said, what are some of your favorites Craig, or ones that you'd recommend for swimming? Yeah,
so starting again. Not necessarily a back country lake, but a lot of trails go and, because it reminds me so much.
Of my native New England and there's even loons on this lake. I'm gonna send you to northeastern Washington again. Sullivan Lake is this big, beautiful lake. Just a couple cabins on it, just camping. I can't tell you how many times when I'm out in that area after hiking in the summer priest wilderness and coming down and going into that lake, it is just amazing.
And it actually. The, on the eastern side of the state, the lakes warm up a little bit more too. It does get hotter there in the summertime.
Yeah.
So I love Sullivan. It's, it is got a nice sandy bottom too. Again, it reminds me a lot of the type of lakes that I grew up swimming in New Hampshire.
So that's good for back country lakes. Boy, where do you wanna start? There's so many. Getting, we talked about earlier the common names, the goats and the greens and the Heathers and all that. There's a lot of those. Lemme tell you, the Goat Lake off the Mountain Loop Highway is a good one for swimming. It's pretty big. There. Used to, actually more than a hundred years ago, there was a resort hotel up there. Nice to go there. So it's got a long history. That's a good one to take. Take a jump in. A really nice the Heather Lake, not the one off the Mountain Loop Highway.
That one just kind for, I wouldn't swim in that one, but the one in the Henry Jackson wilderness. You access coming up from the Lake Wenatchee side is really nice. That's a nice, there's a nice rock ledges there. You can jump into the water. That's a really good one for swimming and close by at Same Mary as Para Lake, which is another nice one.
That, that's a good one for jumping into off the Mountain Loop Highway again. There's North Lake, so if you've ever been and here's the nice thing about North Lake. We haven't even talked about this, Jenny, if you like to, take all your clothes off and go skinny dipping. So what's the protocol on that and everything?
And it's interesting because, I've encountered lots of unclothed people in the wilder. Yeah.
I feel like everywhere. And I know that unless it's like a beach at a state park, that's a possibility. Yes. And I know in the
hot springs, it's an un, unwritten rule that usually back country hot springs clothing is optional.
Me personally, I don't go in the buff unless I'm in a remote lake that I know I'm not. It's just more, not because I'm ashamed of my body or anything, it's more just, some people don't wanna see it and so I'm more it's just in tune with that. But North Lake is one of those places.
Yeah, sure. Strip down and go. 'cause the chances of somebody joining you there. Where is it? See there? I've never been there. So it's one of those ones. It's in my day, hiking North Cascade book. You go past Independence Lake, which is really quick, really easy to get to. This is off the Mountain Loop Highway.
Okay. And then you've gotta climb the sun of a gun hill and then drop way down. And most people just don't go that far. Yeah. And if you get down there, it's a big, beautiful lake that very few people go to. So that's a great one if you want a skinny dip. So that's really nice. And if you don't, you can wear, it's a great one if wear a suit too.
So those are good Twin Lakes, another one off the Mountain Loop Highway, Mon Monte Cristo. Long way to get in there. Two big, beautiful lakes in there. Those would be good for clothing, optional great hikes. And then one of the biggest lakes in the Alpine Lakes wilderness which warms up really nice with ledge spectacle lake.
I've swam in there many times. That's a great one. 'cause it gets hot on that side. And then Wata Lake, even though WATS is pretty big, have white caps on it, but it has some nice sandy beaches in there too. Yeah. And it's a big lake. You can find a little secluded cove. Decide what you wanna wear.
Can you tell everybody
how to get to that one Wuss wa lake,
Wakin from salmon las sac it's about a nine miles to get in nine easy. I hate that, but they are nine easy miles because you mean
not steep.
Not steep at all. Yeah, it's it's really popular for horses. Yeah, it really is for, if you're thinking about doing an 18 mile day hike, it would be one of the easier day 18 mile hikes you can do.
'cause you're climbing less than a thousand feet. So it's a pretty gentle incline. You fall along the river and you get there and it's the largest lake in the alpine leaf wilderness. Yep. That's really nice. Dorothy Lake is another good choice. On the other side, it's one of the larger ones.
It's gonna be colder than wus. Some nice places to swim. In there too. It's a big lake. Lots of room to roam.
Yep.
One of my favorite lakes again too on the the more obscure level. If you ever been to the North Peak wilderness up on, on North Peak, you look down, it's a beautiful basin, basin Lake in there.
And I have been in there I think three or four times, and I've never encountered anybody. Down there. And that is a gorgeous lake. I'll tell you what I have encountered down there, mountain goats, lots of them. Yeah. That whole basin is full of goats. And then in Mount Rainier, same thing.
Really busy. I know people swim in Mage Lake. I don't find it that appealing. Palisades Lake in that area. I've swam in there on hot days. There's all, there's a bunch of lakes in there that. A lot of people don't win. You have to hike down and hike up. So in Rainier, that's good.
And then in the William O. Douglas Wilderness there are tons of lakes in there. Some, a lot of 'em are marshy and everything in there, but the Twin Lakes are really good size and they have some nice swimming areas too. So anyways. Oh, last thing. Rainier too, if that. Another great lake I've swam in.
Beautiful Lake, big Lake. We're talking about the Natchez Loop on one of our hikes if you venture off of it a little. Dewey Lake. Dewey Lake is Dewey Lake. Is Dewey Lake. A great one's a great one. It's great place for
camping too. Great
place for camping. It got a nice grassy shore. So after you come outta the lake, just lie down on the grassy shore.
Yeah. That's a great one for swimming.
Yep.
What are some of your favorites?
One thing I was thinking about while you were talking, Craig, when you mentioned marshy or something, is just how to help people figure out in advance if a lake will be good for swimming in. And so what I would recommend is, unless the lake is closed for some reason.
Or there's like a public health advisory around like algae, which happens more in lowland lakes, ramp parks, lowland lakes. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause these back country lakes, nobody is testing them for, you Plus
they, they don't have the nutrients that a lot of the yeah. And they're cold.
Yeah.
Yeah. But you can always look online to see what different types of algae look like, which I think is a good idea. Anyway. So if it's not prohibited, you can certainly do it. But what you wanna watch out for is like, how are you gonna get into and out of the lake, right? So if you're gonna.
Jump in, how are you gonna get out? So some of our, I'm thinking about Lodge Lake near Snoqualmie Pass, which is an example of not a good swimming lake because it's super muddy and loggy all the way around. So it's like, how do you get to water that's deep enough to even float in? Is really challenging there.
So there's no reason you can't, but like just practically, that's gonna be hard. So how do you figure out if that's gonna be true? What I'd recommend is first of all, if folks have one of your guidebooks, Craig, you'll say this is a great swimming lake, or this lake is covered in mud, so it's, in addition to that, like on the Washington Trails Association entries too, and a lot of those are your.
Riding as well. Not all, but a lot. You can also look at photos and you can tell, or you can read trip reports that someone might say, I went for a swim and it was great. Or they might say, I wanted to go swimming, but there was just too much mud to get to the lake. Or, yeah, something like
that.
For me, generally I like the kind of the granite till. The granite till basin, and again, a lot of glaciated areas and again, where I grew up, the whole northeast, all the Appalachian North. Yeah. All have that. They're wonderful. Just this nice granite. Not as much here though you get higher up the key ledge you find a nice sloping ledge.
Yep. So that you can just walk down on this ledge if you don't wanna jump in. So it's a lot more caught. And then you can just swim out a little and then. And then come in and I know will mention we were talking again about safety again. This is really important too. When I was younger.
I wouldn't think about anything being when I was alone, just jumping in a lake and swimming out and, but again, you not a good idea when you're solo. Yeah. Because of the drowning factors you don't know. There's all kinds of things. So now I tend, if I'm by myself, I'm my lake. I'm not gonna go out for a swim out in the middle of the lake and come back.
Yeah. If there's, so again, using those safety things, and again, there could be hazards, logs and weeds, but again, looking for that nice sandy bottom. Or that ledge. And half the time what I do is I just sit on a ledge in the water for a while. I go for a plunge just to cool my body temperature down, especially if I'm out running.
And then what I love doing, this is the best part of jumping in a ridiculously cold lake is coming out on a warm day and just getting sun dried. Great. Yeah. I didn't even bring a tall half the time. I just let the sun drive me. I just love that. So yeah, it's just it feels great and yeah, you're recharged you get all that grit, if you've been out there running all that dust, totally dust and everything off of you yeah.
It just feels good. Yeah, absolutely.
I, another thing I really love to do, especially backpacking, is to bring, I have this ridiculous pool donut. It's it's literally a donut. Like it's funny, like the material is. Colored like a donut that I bought like in Las Vegas. What flavor? For a lazy river.
So it is not like appropriate for any kind of difficult, it doesn't hold air super well or whatever, but if you're just by an alpine lake and you just wanna float on it for a little bit. It's pretty great. And, it looks ridiculous when I have it tied onto my pack, but I do that sometimes.
I think a couple lakes. So yeah, all the ones you mentioned are good. I think any, really any lake that you can hike to that you can access. Is great. Like Margaret Lake near SNO. Callie Pass is a good one. But I also think. For Lake Swimming. I just wanna give a nod to like state parks, beaches, if you
Oh yeah.
So not backcountry stuff. So lake Wenatchee, it's not back
country, but Lake Wenatchee
is a great one. Lake
Wenatchee, lake Easton. Yep. You know those are places that Lake we talked about do have access. Curly Lake that we talked about previously. Even some of the parks around Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish.
So those might seem like, yeah, duh, Jenny. But honestly they're pretty great, right? And you're gonna be close to your car and it's not a swimming pool, but you're outside, you're in. Nons, salt water. Those are all pretty great.
Yeah. Lots of times. Car camping for an extended period of time in a warm area, being next to a lake is wonderful. One in the Goat Rocks Wilderness one of the really nice national forest campgrounds is Wallop Lake, which is nice. You camped there and you got this big lake
Yeah. That you can
go into after doing hikes.
I like, there's a bunch of places like that. Yeah. I mentioned Lake Wenatchee earlier too. I've spent more time there early summer. It's brutally cold. The water coming in there and it never really warms up that much, but as the summer progresses, the air gets a lot warmer, so it's a lot easier Yeah.
When it's 90 degrees to hop into that lake. Yeah. But that's a great one for base camping. Yeah. Yeah. And I mentioned solve as well. It's a great place to base out of now.
Yes. Yeah. So I think there's a couple different ways to do it. One is to hike to a lake and swim, and then another is to hike and then swim in a lake after.
And we should also mention too, when you, if you are using a lake as your base to. Get the grid off and everything. Never ever, never, ever use soap clean. Use it as a bath. Yeah. In back country what you do if you're cleaning off and using any type, you take a pail of water, you get it from the lake, and then you walk well away from the shore and you douse yourself and use any type of ra, lathering up and let the soap, hopefully biodegradable soap filter into.
Sand and grass never into the water. 'cause again, people are using it as a water source. It's gonna be pollute. Yep. So don't use any type of shampoos or soaps or anything like that. Yeah. You'd be amazed too, lots of times. Just how much, again, how much is just grit and sweat that'll come off and you won't need the urge to.
To use anything like that when you're out there. So
yeah, mirror Lake, which is near Sno. Callie Pass is another good one.
I've been, there is a nice one. Yep. Yeah. Yep.
For sure. There's usually quite a few people there swimming and with pool toys, but it's pretty fun. Yeah. Again, it's not too long to get there.
Alpine Lakes wilderness. There's 400 named Lakes in the Alpines wilderness. So there's gonna be lots of great places to go. Not all of 'em are gonna be swimmable. Or desirable. Yeah. But yeah, I think there, there's, Washington does have an abundance. What I do find too, I. In the Cascades a lot.
Not as much in, in the the Olympics. There's not as much lakes there, but there, there are a handful. You can hike into too but certainly in that central cascade area in the part, the southern part of the North Cascades, it's gotta be one of the highest percentages of Alpine Lakes anywhere.
Yeah.
Love it. Everybody happy swimming. Enjoy. We'll see you next time.
📍 If you are enjoying the Washington State Hiking Podcast, Craig and I would love to have you leave us a rating and a review that helps other people find us. And if you wanna support us financially, you can leave us a tip through the show notes. No account, no commitment, nothing like that. Thank you so much for listening and see you next week.
