Lake Chelan

Celea McInerny
Jun 2, 2016
4 min read

With three trips to Lake Chelan in the past month, it is finally time to share my experiences with you! My desire to escape the gloomy city led me right to Eastern Washington to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather that doesn't hit Seattle until June. On my first trip, I took Mac and we stayed at the Lakeside Lodge and Resort. Previously a Best Western, this hotel offers large rooms, free breakfast, beach access, and allows dogs. Many of my friends choose this spot to spend a long week in Chelan and I took advantage of their off season rates. I was able to enjoy the sunshine and take Mac on a nice hike on Little Bear Trail in the Chelan State Park! The trail was just over two miles that took us on a loop through the surprisingly damp and green forest. The spring colors were just starting to sprout and Mac and I enjoyed this brisk excursion.

My second trip to Chelan urged me to try a new and highly rated hotel called, Campbell's. My friend Sara and I decided to stay one night at this proclaimed hotel and soak up the sun. Upon arrival, we checked into our large room and then grabbed some burgers for lunch at the drive in next door. We instantly started to love this place because the location is right in town across the street from Safeway, Starbucks, and other great restaurants. It was a blast running to and from the grocery store and back to the beach. The private beach that Campbell's owns is AMAZING! The white sandy ground, green lush grass, heated pools and hot tubs, boardwalks, beach umbrellas, and plethora of amazing tanning locations made us fall in love with this retreat! We ended up grilling steak on the facilities BBQ's and enjoying the five star sunset of the lake from our over sized deck. The next morning we decided to extend our trip for another night and ended up doing some wine tasting during the day. We went to a few popular wineries with complementary tasting. At our last spot, we ordered a cheese plate and bought a bottle of Rose and enjoyed our selections in the vineyard. We eventually made it back to our hotel to grab some small happy hour appetizers before heading back into the sun. We spent our days floating in the pool, swimming in the lake, eating great food, and catching up with each other in this beautiful setting. The last thing we wanted to do on our third day was leave, but we still relish on those moments each and every day.

My last recent trip was for a friends birthday at Campbell's. We didn't get as much beach time in but we did get to explore the small area Chelan offers for outdoor activities. After searching the web for an hour, we finally decided to check out the Chelan Butte area. Not so much for hiking, but a great spot for hill-top views and pictures! We decided to explore the butte for a few hours, eventually making it to the top and seeing Eastern Washington on one side, and Western Washington on the other. After the mini adventure we made our way to Manson and Wappato Point. I insisted we check out the famous BBQ at Lake Chelan Winery. After a quick run through the eclectic gift shop and wine tasting, we decided we weren't hungry enough to eat a full meal. We instead decided to pick up some homemade cornbread from the restaurant to take back to the hotel. Not so unfortunately, the restaurant manager sadly informed us that the cornbread had a baking defect and wasn't sellable. Instead he told us he would give us a box of free cornbread to take home as long as we didn't look at it. At this point, we decided to just enjoy the cornbread and order a half rack of ribs to eat in the garden. The service at the winery was seriously mind blowing. We felt so happy to be enjoying this time in Chelan with great people. A few hours later the season premier of the Bachelor was on so we were stuck indoors for the rest of the night. We then wrapped ourselves in the hotel robes, sat in front of the fireplace, and played games. It was a wonderful trip that ended with a 6 hour expedition of Stormy Mountain. Noted as one of the more popular destination, we drove 20 miles down the lake to the Chelan State Park. Accompanied with not so great directions we started to head up the mountain. The higher we got, the road conditions worsened and the cliff on the side became steeper. It really got our adrenaline running and we just about freaked out when we came across a family of deer. We ended up making a few uncertain turns and decided we weren't on the right track to Stormy Mountain. We went back down to the starting point and we took a few minutes to find the sign towards Stormy Mountain. After a struggle we eventually spotted the tiny sign and proceeded on our route. This time the drive was much more elaborate and the views were stunning. We kept seeing stormy clouds above a tall mountain and hoped this was finally the road. On the way were a selection of trail heads and campgrounds to explore. It took us hours to get to the top because we kept stopping and taking dramatic pictures. I was pleasantly surprised how much fun this drive was. It was like a private playground for us to see and we kept finding more and more natural settings. We were even running through last year's forest fires and getting ash all over our hands and in our shoes. At the top of the mountain, we realized we took one last wrong turn but decided we needed to head back to Seattle before it got too late. I had one last photo opportunity to hang my hammock in between two perfect trees overlooking the Snoqualmie/Wenatchee Valley. It was an amazing couple of weeks in Chelan but I'm ready to hike some big trails!