I recently posted a picture of the Enchantments, a series of glacial lakes above 9000 feet elevation in the North Cascades.  I took the picture 40 years ago, but NOT in May.  Those lakes are only open in the late Fall before the snow comes.  Here is a picture of what they look like now.  The two lakes are completely frozen.  You can see them in the right center of the photo.  No one is camping there now, that’s for sure.

I shot this picture 40 years ago.  It’s in the Stuart range of the North Cascades.  A place called “the Enchantments,” for obvious reasons.  The trees are Western Larch and, yes, that’s really the color of the needles.

In those days, when the government didn’t require permits and there were few people who knew of the place and fewer who climbed into it, it was pristine beauty.  Ice cold water.  Way above the air pollution haze.  The mountain in the background is Prusik Peak, actually about 2 miles away.

My brother and I would jump in the car after school, drive to the base and climb like mad to get there before dark.  I miss those days.  A different life then.