Alpine lakes??

[JasonG]

Anybody hunt the alpine lakes area. I'm a little confused is it a draw Gmu?  I couldn't find my info on it. Not looking for anybody's spots just curious about it. It seems like it would be full of hikers. Thanks Jason

[jackelope]

It's gmu 250 I think. It's open during the general season and there is an early rifle hunt in September within the wilderness boundary. You'll see it referred to as the high hunt or high buck. Mostly all backpack in to access type hunt.

[JasonG]

Is it open to anyone for early high buck?

[jackelope]

You'd have to read the regs. I think it's closed for archery as weird as that sounds.

[Branden]

The alpine lakes is actually the 460 and 249 GMU I believe. 250 is swakane. Pretty sure there is an archery season in both those GMU's the entire month of September. I have done some hiking in the ALW. There were a lot of hikers which is to be expected. Talked to some guys that hunted it for the high hunt and it sounded pretty crowded. But most of the high hunt areas are now days. There is also an OTC elk hunt in there for the east side so that adds a few more hunters in there during September.

It's a beautiful area to hike in, with tons of lakes to fish. Not a ton of game but there are some deer, bear, elk, and lions in there.   

Regards, Branden

[couesbitten]

All of unit 249 is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness (ALW), and it's open to archery hunters for deer from September 1 - 30, for elk during the early archery season, and to modern firearm hunters during the High Buck Hunt from the September 15 - 25, and during general season.  During the High Buck Hunt, ALL of the ALW is open to hunting, not just that portion in unit 249.  There is almost as much wilderness on the west side of the Cascade crest as there is on the right.  Have a look at this link to an interactive map of the ALW. If you zoom in near Snoqualmie Pass, you can see the dotted (county) line that runs north to Stevens Pass, everything to the east of that line and within the ALW boundary, is unit 249, everything to the west is ALW within unit 460.

http://www.wilderness.net/map.cfm?xmin=-13541539.2396&ymin=6004016.8226&xmax=-13434030.0939&ymax=6066918.6081