Washington State
Distance: 5.0 to 12.0 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 100 to 625 feet
Washington Trails Association (WTA) guide: Ancient Lakes
You can make this hike challenging, or you can keep it easy. It a <2 mile flat hike to the first of the lakes, where campsites begin. If you do this hike overnight, you do need to bring all your water, as the lakes are filled with irrigation runoff and are not safe to drink from, even after filtering or boiling your water (these activities do not get rid of pesticides).
Once you're at the lake, you can pretty much just lounge around and go for short walks (what we did) or if you are feeling ambitious this hike can be done as a 12 mile loop (see WTA guide).
Either way, it is a gorgeous hike to do early season in spring when the rest of Washington State is a soggy mess.
