For a short hike to a pretty little alpine lake with brook trout fishing, you
might want to consider the 1/2 mile hike to Hidden Lake in Chelan County near
Lake Wenatchee.

Hidden Lake can be reached by driving to Lake Wenatchee over Steven's Pass
(from Western Washington). At Lake Wenatchee, take the south shore road to
the Glacier View USFS campground. The trailhead is there, followed by a
short, but steep, half mile hike.

Your reward is a pleasant and clear, tree lined alpine lake of 5 to 10 acres.
The oval shaped lake is surprisingly deep in spots, but shallow on it's east
and west ends. When we arrived at 11 AM, we could see a number of brook
trout actively surface feeding in the middle of the lake. My wife and I used
spoons and spinners to fish the lake with minimal success. In an hour and a
half, we managed two strikes from small (4 to 6 inch) Brookies and I saw one
briefly dart out from a log after my spinner that was close to ten inches
long.

By and large, this is a small trout lake. Another person fishing the lake
verified this for us. Using a fly rod, he landed one small brook trout and
told us of good success on previous trips working the shallow west end of the
lake for lots of small but spunky brookies.

The short hike also makes it a pretty busy spot. On a Thursday afternoon, we
saw close to 15 people come and go while we were at the lake. Of these
people, many more were interested in swimming than fishing. A morning or
evening trip during the week would probably be best for some quality fishing
or some time to admire the scenery.

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