Ice Lake is a very blue lake near Silverton.  I tried hiking to it in the summer but didn’t even make it half way.  It was a very steep trail and was a longer hike than I had time for.  I did make it to Ice Lake Basin which was an amazingly beautiful basin.

In the fall 4 of us hiked up to Ice Lake.  The hike went by multiple waterfalls and a couple lakes.  When we got to Ice Lake Basin, I almost backed out of doing the full loop.  The hike had already been difficult for me and there was so much more to go.  But I pushed on.  The first lake we got to was Island Lake.  It was an unreal deep green like an emerald.  It was very windy and cold up there so we hid behind some rocks for lunch.  At this point we were done with the steep uphill so at least I knew I was going to be able to make it now.

Then the trail traversed over to a higher portion of the Ice Lake Basin and off in the distance I could see the bright blue of Ice Lake.  It seemed to be glowing from inside the lake.  It looked like the blueness of the lake was just a trick of the lighting as it was a richer blue than the sky.  As we got closer, the shade of blue did not change as I expected it to.  I’ve never seen a lake that color before.  It’s not the blue of glacial water, but a richer darker blue.  It looked like blue Kool aide.  It’s from the minerals in the area.  The creek coming out of the lake was a combination of silver and white.  The rocks near by were covered in a white chalky looking mineral.  As you looked off in the distance the creek snaked through the basin like a silver ribbon.

The hike down was steep and rocky until it got to the bottom of the Ice Lake Basin and then caught back up with the trail we took up.  There was a small waterfall where the creek came down from the lake.  When we were about to cross this portion of the creek, the couple in front of us stopped.  The guy was quite excited to dip his water bottle in the creek and take a drink.  What?  The rocks are all a ghostly white and you just saw the unnaturally colored lake above.  Why would you drink that?  His girlfriend asked how it was and he said “It tastes likes rocks”.  We stood there in disbelief unable to move.  How does he know what rocks taste like?  Is he going to be sick later?  We will never know.

The rest of the hike down was just as beautiful as the way up.  Overall, the hike was a bit more than I was physically prepared for and I was feeling beat up by the time we got back to the car, but I’m very glad I did the whole hike.