Lake Serene Mine May, 2001

Route Information

We finally got free one day in May - work was pushed aside and our gear was dusted off. An easy goal seemed to be in hand. The Lake Serene mines were a good choice. The starting point was to be the newish (and relocated) Lake Serene trailhead, just off of US 2 near the Index cutoff. The new trailhead is nice - we got there after noon some time, and the weather was great. We strapped on all our gear and took off.

The new Lake Serene trailhead is just off US 2 now

The way to the Lake Serene Mine follows the old mine road

The new Lake Serene 'trail' just follows the old mine road, that was drivable some years ago. It is a smooth trail, and gains elevation quickly. Several washed out areas are crossed, and it is obvious that this road will never be driven again. After about 45 minutes, a large berm is encountered on the right side of the road. This blocks off another old road which comes up the hillside from the north. The old topo maps show this feature. New ones may not.

One will soon come across a trail sign in the road, directing hikers to continue to the left of the road, on the newly constructed portion of the Lake Serene trail. The way to the Lake Serene mine follows the road up.

The trail goes left - the road leads ahead to the mine

We walked up the road for about a .25 miles more, staying left at a fork near the end. The end of the road is a large gravel clearing, which years ago was the 'parking lot' for the original Lake Serene 'trail'. It had taken us about and hour to get this far, and we stopped here. Immediately above is a cliffy area and steep gully. This is the location of the Lake Serene mine.

One can see the location of the lower adit - there is some spray painting on the rocks by the mine entrance, and this can be seen from the parking lot. We walked up a short bulldozer track, then cut over right several feet to the adit location. Someone has spray painted "Danger, don't enter" by the entrance. (The same spray paint was also used to write "Jim -N- Melissa" and "Smoke Pot" so we took the warning at face value).

It looked a little muddy so we put on our rubber boots. The lower adit also looks cramped and claustrophobic from the outside, but once inside, it is quite roomy and dry. We started down the main tunnel.

Standing below the mine at the 'parking lot'

We briefly took notice of the warnings not to go in...

... and ignored them. The source was suspect anyway

It was slightly confusing as we continued down the tunnel - different drifts branched off at intervals, and sometimes these drifts branched off too. We stayed left, and soon came to a 'Y' where we could an old barrel laying over some timbers on the tunnel floor. This was the location of the only winze in this tunnel system. We carefully made our way next to it, where we shined lights down into it.

This old barrel was lodged above the winze in the lower adit

We took some samples from the brightly green-stained walls

It seemed to be about 20 feet deep or so, and some small rocks thrown down hit the bottom with a dull thud. The barrel acted as somewhat of a barrier to bodies accidentally falling in, and well as some old stout timbers. Beyond this was a network of old timbers hanging above, which identified some stope work above - we didn't go any further down this part of the tunnel, as it seemed somewhat dangerous.

We also noticed the bright blue-green staining of the rocks all around the tunnel near the winze. We took some samples here, and some pictures. Much chalk graffiti exists in this mine, probably from kids. We followed the left side to the end of the tunnel, then retraced our steps and explored each drift along the right-hand portion. It was interesting to see that the kids had drawn arrows at intersections indicating the way out. We then had our fill, followed the arrows and came out of the darkness into the warm air outside.

There was scary stope work beyond the winze - we didn't go further

The mine tunnel was stained from the ore in different places

We continued along the bulldozer track past the short path to the lower adit. After about a hundred feet, one comes to a wet grotto area, where a small rock memorial stands. It contains a plaque, flowers, and a tent peg. This is was constructed in the memory of three individuals that perished in the area during an winter avalanche several years ago. Past the memorial to the left, the old Lake Serene trail can be found contouring the hillside. We took this for a few hundred yards more, over some large mossy rocks. We then saw some red ribbons marking a rough route steeply up the hill back to the right. We climbed this for 10 minutes or so, until we came to the steep gully holding the lower adit. Now we were a few hundred feet above the parking lot, which we could see down below. The upper adit of the Lake Serene mine was directly (and somewhat hidden) under a small waterfall. We ducked past the waterfall and entered the upper mine entrance.

This was a little memorial for three unfortunate souls

The upper tunnel was not very long, only about a couple hundred feet. Since we only were wearing our hiking boots, we stepped carefully along the wet portion at the beginning (strategically placed timbers helped here). Soon we came to a stoped area above, and some large rocks on the tunnel floor made us uneasy. A short distance later, some real caving had occurred, with a lot of material and timbers partially blocking the way. We decided that this would be our turnaround point. At the first stoped area, we noticed a vein above with some interesting minerals. It looked like others have been whacking samples out, and we did as well.

After that, a cool duck under the waterfall put us back outside. A fast and knee-twisting descent down the steep woods put us on the trail, and back to the 'parking lot'. We then made the relaxing stroll down the old road to the Lake Serene trailhead.

A shot of the Lake Serene Mine upper adit, behind the falls

References:

• 100 Classic Hikes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness - Mountaineers. Lake Serene trail information.
• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information about the mine - route information not up to date.