Enchanatments, page 5

In the Upper Enchantment Basin

The upper basin is barren and desolate compared to the lower basin. All but two of the upper lakes were frozen. We even walked across three of them, albeit somewhat nervously.

Little Annapurna, with the route going up Snow Creek Glacier.

As we approached the foot of the mountain, I could see tracks leading up Snow Creek Glacier that had been left by previous people. It didn’t look too hard. Once we started going up, it turned out to be a bit more taxing than I thought. We kept a steady, slow pace and I paused several times to gawk at the beauty around me and take photos.

Rune Lake, Prusik Peak and Mt. Temple from the slopes of Little Annapurna.

Finally, we stood atop the 8440’ summit. You truly could see for miles and miles! We were higher than the summits of both The Temple and Mt. McClellan, the peaks that had seemed so high and foreboding earlier. Now the entire region was pretty much spread out around us. There were mountains that were higher (for example Mt. Stuart) but we were genuinely up there!

Ancient bedrock on the summit of Little Annapurna. Prusik Peak and Mt. Temple in the background.

One of the most fascinating things was finding the slabs of rock that had formed the ancient bedrock. Yes, you read that right. I’m paraphrasing Fred Becky here:

The huge granite batholith underlying this area is roughly 16-miles by 13-miles in dimension and was intruded (uplifted) into the area about 120-million years ago. Over millions of years, erosion and weathering removed the lower softer rocks and exposed the harder granite. During the ice age, the Snow Creek Glaciers flowed down Rat, Snow and Mountaineer creeks into Icicle Canyon, further sculpting the area. But the glaciers didn't 100% cover the area and if you climb to the summits (like we did on Little Annapurna), you'll find ancient bedrock slabs.

Again ... if Fred said it, it's gosple to me!

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