The Enchantments lie within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Cascade Mountains near Leavenworth, Washington. It’s an incredibly popular wilderness area, and in a effort to preserve it, a very limited amount of camping permits are issued for each day. The permits are awarded using a lottery system, and it’s difficult to get them. To get a better understanding of how difficult, check out these “Enchantment Stats 2019” which shows the number of applicants vs awarded permits for each permit area.
You can do a brutal 18 mile thru-hike if an over-night permit isn’t obtained, but in my opinion you miss out on really enjoying the area (which I understand is easy to say when I’ve been lucky enough to actually camp in the Core). Also, the reason the over-night permits are limited is to help preserve the wilderness area and the trail, which is negated somewhat by the hoards of day hikers running through.
I know it would suck to limit another popular area, but I actually think the thru-hikers should have a daily limit as well as over-nighters. At least that way, the hope is the people who care about the thru-hike enough to get the permit would care to be good stewards who practice leave-no-trace as well.
Limiting the number of people physically walking down the trail would help to preserve it for longer too. If you’ve ever traveled to an old church or popular destination, it can be shocking how much human feet alone can wear down stone or marble steps. Imagine how much faster that type of degradation can occur on a trail. I don’t necessarily think the day hikers should have to pay to enter the area, but I do feel there should be daily cap.
Like many popular hiking trails in this area, it’s becoming increasingly over-crowded and conservation is a very important conversation to be having. How do we protect these beautiful, natural areas we love for the future? Unfortunately, it may mean limiting the amount we can enjoy them in the present.
Ted Alvarez on Crosscut has an interesting article about this, where he actually interviews Rangers and other hikers. Check it out here!
What do you think? What has been your experience in high-traffic popular areas? Would you be willing to limit daily visits in areas threatened by over-use?
I’ve had the chance to backpack The Enchantments twice now. The first time in June 2017, and the second time in September, 2018. Both times, I was a last minute sub for someone in the group who dropped out.
I’m not going to lie, this area is incredibly popular because it is amazing.
Below are some pictures from both trips, the rest of this post will be a big picture dump. Enjoy!
June, 2017
September, 2018
