When: May 12-14, 2017 This particular weekend we had permits to do Mt. St. Helen's with a group, but the weather was calling for 2+ feet of new snow, wind, and bad avalanche conditions. We called off the trip 2 days prior because of this. We still wanted to get out of town so we made last minute plans to camp at Lake Chelan State Park. This was done online and there were still many campsites open the day before. We even got one of the prime ones on the water. We left Friday after packing up all the camping gear and 3 hours later we were at our campsite just before dark. The campsite was interesting in that you parked up top on the road and then had to go down some stairs about 50 feet to your campsite that was close to the water. We set up camp, had a fire and called it a day.
The next day we had a slow morning of coffee by the lake and breakfast burritos. Ahh the luxuries of car camping. We got everything ready and set out to hike Chelan Butte about 20 minutes away. There weren't too many reviews on WTA for this hike, but some recent ones said the wildflowers were getting good. The hike is an open landscape, rolling hills kind of deal. So very different than western Washington. We hiked for about 2 hours to get to the top and the hike continues on a ridge line walk after that. We turned around at this point due to wind. Overall we hiked about 6 miles/ 2100 elevation gain. The hike was gorgeous with all the wildflowers, views of the north cascades and Lake Chelan.
We then went to a local winery here, there are many in the area. We went to Tsillan Cellars as it was highly recommended and rated. We did a tasting of 5 wines, enjoyed the beautiful vineyards and then were on our way back to the campground.
That evening we cooked teriyaki chicken skewers, drank Minnesotan beer, relaxed by the fire and took a sunset stroll by the lake.
It wont be too long until we are back at Lake Chelan for a medical conference. It is also high on my list to hike the lakeshore trail that follows Lake Chelan all the way up to Stehekin. So many things to do in Washington, so little time.