To make matters worse, I only found out about the hike the day before and had to scramble to find something. Since we were leaving from Kirkland I had Highway 2 and the Mountain Loop Highway opened to me, but was tied to something "between six and eight miles, not too high, and mostly in the trees." Hmm...

A bit of searching turned up Lake Serene. Seven miles, 1,600 feet of gain to a beautiful lake with a waterfall along the way. Sounded like a winner so when we got to Kirkland around 10:30 we threw Tokul in the truck and headed out to Index.

I-90 has certainly spoiled me so I was cursing the traffic on Highway 2 for much of the trip out. As bad as it was, though, we got to the trailhead and were on our way by about noon. I think we got the last spot in the parking lot which worried me some, but there wasn't much to do about it by that time.

The trail starts as an abandoned road for about the first mile gaining at a reasonable rate. We chose to postpone a view of Bridal Veil Falls until our return trip so we continued by the spur trail and started climbing. From the spur it's two miles of pretty aggressive switchbacks up the side of the hill. At a few spots even switchbacks couldn't cope with the steep slope so there were stairs.

The weather wasn't terribly bad, perhaps 80F with moderate humidity, but it was enough that we were both sweating like crazy and Tokul was breathing insanely fast to try to vent heat. We stopped a few times to drink and let people on the way down go past, but mostly it was just a slow trudge up. There are a few good views out the valley to the peaks beyond, but for the most part all we saw was the tread beneath our feet.

We entered an area which was mostly open and we could see Mt. Index directly ahead of us. Clearly we must be getting close and we saw lots of people heading down in clumps. As we reached the top of the next rise someone on the way down said we were almost there. Sure enough, another five feet and we could see the lake.

The water was an amazing blue and there was still snow in a few spots on the western shore below the towering cliffs. A few people were jumping into the water while others were stretched out on rocks. After letting Tokul get a drink we continued on the trail around the north end of the lake to "Lunch Rock" where there were a bunch of people who were... eating lunch. Not a bad idea, so we sat down and consumed a bit ourselves.

Out trip down seemed to blast past and before we knew it we were back at the junction with the spur trail. We got back into climbing mode and ascended the half mile trail to the base of Bridal Veil Falls which was quite spectacular. Like Kamikaze Falls on Mt. Tenerrife, the water splashed down a series of jagged rocks before making a final plunge into a small pool. A creek sprinted down the hill before disappearing over the edge next to a sign that says "falling is deadly." Tokul got a bit of a drink and a swim and seemed to finally cool off a bit.

We took a bundle of pictures, but with a long drive ahead of us we decided we'd best get going. After the lake and the waterfall the abandoned road seemed not much fun, but it served its purpose. The parking lot had emptied a bit, but evidently there were still a ton of people on the trail.

Happily, traffic on the way back was a mere shadow of the traffic on the way out so we made good time stopping only at the Monroe Starbucks which has become a tradition when hiking off Highway 2 and a tasty tradition at that.