I had planned on hiking Wallace Falls with my dad since my parents came over Saturday and stayed the night. However my dad's hip is in dire need of replacement, which will be replaced sometime in the middle of March. Since it hurts him just to walk, even a moderate hike probably wouldn't be a good idea. Since I was now going to spend this lovely day on a solo hike, I decided a challenge would be in order. No messing around today. Lake Serene would be my target. I got my pack ready with lunch, extra clothes, camera, water, and a knife. The only thing I didn't have was a forest pass. The Chevron/Burger King sells Stevens Pass lift tickets, so they probably will sell forest passes too. Sure enough they did. $30 dollars poorer and a Northwest Forest Pass in hand I took off down hwy 2 with the Mt. Index road as my destination.

Got on the trailhead at 11:00am and started on my way up. The first thing I ran into was this little flimsy looking bridge. I had to think twice about actually using it to get to the other side of the stream. Sturdy enough, my slightly overweight body didn't collapse it and I'm still dry. The trail follows the creek for a while to a washout, where you have to do some rock leaping to get to the other side of the creek, then you're back on the trail. From here the trail veers off to the left and is pretty moderate until you reach an area where the trail forks. One goes up, the other down. A sign said to follow the left one (down), which I followed. There is a long staircase and at the bottom and to the left is another fork and a sign. To the right takes you up to Bridal Falls (1/2 mile). To the left takes you to Lake Serene (2 miles). After the fork, you come to a little boardwalk and an open view up to index. You begin to realize that the hike is about to get steep and soon. Then you come to this beautifully made bridge with handrails and a teaser view of Bridal Falls. After the bridge you get to an area at the bottom of the falls. This would be a really good area to cool off in the summer heat.

Now the hike gets serious.. Let the switch backing begin. It's pretty rough from here on out to the lake. There were some patches of icy snow on the switchbacks that made it slow going at times. The final push (after switchbacks end) to the lake is a snow field. One slip and you could be sliding a long way down. I made it across with only Sorrels on. In hindsight I should have never attempted the crossing solo. The snow trail was icy in places, and trying to negotiate a small stream, I slipped on a rock and gashed my left hand. From this point to the lake I took my sweet time. The sign before the lake, was buried in snow almost to the top. Got to the lake and was very happy to see a couple hanging out. The lake is frozen solid and there were multiple tracks going across the lake. I looked to see if any tracks abruptly ended next to a hole. Fortunately no holes were visible, good to know the ice is pretty solid. After 15 minutes at the top Dan and Emily (the nice couple at the lake) were on their way down and I decided it would be in my best interest to follow them, just in case I slipped down the snowfield embankment. They had no problems getting across with snowshoes. Dan said crampons would have been better, and I have to agree with him. Other than my nail-biting final push, I enjoyed the hike tremendously. To be on the safe side I would bring snowshoes or crampons for the final part of the hike. There were a couple trees down of the trail, but getting around them was really easy.

Hike was 2 1/2 hrs up to the lake and took 1 1/2 hrs to get down.

Stay right on the Mount Index Road to get to the trailhead. There is a parking area and facilities (honey bucket style) included. Northwest Forest Pass is need to park there. Be prepared for a long wait to get back onto U.S. 2 when departing the trailhead. This is especially true for Sunday afternoons.