Good colors. Lots of berries = lots of bears!

A group of three, we drove up to Port Angeles the night of the 18th and stayed at a motel, and drove the next morning to Sol Duc Trailhead.  We got there around 8.30 am and there were still lots of parking spots.  We did the loop clockwise, and hiked to Sol Duc Park camp on the first day.  The uphill is pretty gradual and the terrain is easy.  We'd read trip reports from the previous weekend about all the privies being full and unusable at most of the camps (including the two we intended to stay at) but we talked to someone hiking in the opposite direction who said that a helicopter had just taken away the old privies and replaced them with new ones the day before we arrived.  That was good news!  We stayed at site #4 at Sol Duc Park camp, which is near a small waterfall and stream -easiest access to a water source I've ever had.  I took a quick dip in the pool below the waterfall.  It's deeper than it looks and very cold but quite refreshing.  On Saturday, we hiked along the High Divide trail to Lunch Lake.  We briefly considered using the "unmaintained" trail as a short cut to Lunch Lake but the day was so clear we wanted to see all the beautiful scenery the High Divide trail had, and hey, "unmaintained" seems like a big hint they don't want people using it.  Not too far past Heart Lake, we paused and then went up a short side trail to a viewpoint.  Good thing we did as that's when we noticed that about 30 feet ahead of us, there was a bear right beside the main trail, busy munching on vegetation (probably berries -there is a berry "super bloom" going on right now).  The bear ignored our presence completely for a couple minutes, and then went ambling off in the opposite direction.  Lots of hikers passed us from the opposite direction that morning and nearly everyone had seen at least one bear.  The official trail down to Lunch Lake is the most well constructed and maintained trail I think I've ever been on, as stairs have been built into it with the local stones.  Indeed, the whole 19 mile loop is one of best maintained trails I've ever been on, all stabilized with wood and stone, with water redirects, so that nothing can get washed out and there is not a single instance of tree fall to have to climb over.  At Lunch Lake we occupied site #9, which had a view of the lake, close access to the (brand new!) privy, and some tree cover.  We knew it was going to rain that night, heavily at times, and figured the cover would help disperse the rain.  I took a swim in the lake while it was still warm and sunny.  I thought it was a nice temperature albeit a little cool.  It has a rocky shoreline (not squishy mud) and gets deep quickly so you only have to walk out a few feet to about mid-thigh and then you can take a plunge/dive forward. It rained from about 9.30 pm to 7 am, but I stayed dry in my tent.   We hiked out, via Deer Lake, on Sunday. There were clouds and mist but we were mostly in the woods anyway.  Past Deer Lake, you're back in classic PNW rain forest and the trail is very rocky.  Unless you have really tough knees, you will want to use trekking poles for sure.  There are lots of streams and waterfalls.  As we got closer to Sol Duc TH again, there were a LOT of day hikers, and a very full parking lot when we got back to the trailhead.

This is a backpack that I will definitely want to do again some day.

This one has been on my radar for years.  It is in all of my Washington hiking guidebooks, and in my relentless pursuit of doing all 100 classic Washington hikes, I was lucky enough to get a permit.  I arrived to a ~75% full trailhead on Friday 9/12. Privies are in rough shape but stocked.

Started the loop counterclockwise at 9:30am and reached a busy deer lake at noon for lunch. Folks were fishing and it seemed like they were getting some bites here.

After continuing on from deer lake the trail transitions from beautiful forest to beautiful tarn-dotted meadows, and continues climbing the whole time. Between deer lake and lunch lake are more huckle/blue berries than I have seen outside of the South Cascades. A true feast.

I reached lunch lake at 3:30pm and searched for a campsite. Most were occupied by the time I got there but ended up finding the perfect site. The privy at lunch lake was unusably full, which was a massive disappointment. No ranger checked for permits here either. In fact, I didn’t see a single ranger on the entire loop.

After a surprisingly good night sleep (it was deafeningly quiet at the lake), I broke camp and filtered water / ate before hitting the trail. My bear canister was undisturbed.

I left lunch lake at 8:15am. The climb out of the basin was steep but not as bad as I expected. What surprised me was how much further I had to climb to reach the high divide proper. Maybe I was worn out but getting to those first good views of Mt Olympus was the most challenging part of the hike in my opinion.

And the views were magnificent. I was treated to a morning cloud inversion while the early sun danced off of the glaciers. The stretch of trail between lunch lake and heart lake was incredible. It truly lives up to the hype.

I arrived at heart lake at 11:30am and stopped for lunch. It was busy here. The privy there was in good usable condition.

Back on the trail, I was surprised by how many more miles of meadows lie between heart lake and the sol duc river. The descent was relentless and it did feel like a bit of a slog to get back to the river. The remainder of the trail back to the trailhead was also a slog but I was tired at this point. Don’t get me wrong, the forest was spectacular. Massive old growth, and the trail was much softer underfoot here, too. A welcome change after many rocky miles.

I reached the trailhead at 4:00pm. One of the best loops I’ve ever done. When I return I will plan on going counterclockwise, again, to lunch lake basin, exploring the basin further, and returning the same way as an out-and-back.

What a gorgeous day in Olympic National Park. We hiked the loop as a day hike, as we couldn’t get backpacking permits last minute when we saw good weather here. We are very happy with the choice to day hike it rather than skip. The fall foliage was starting to come in with some reddening blueberry bushes that were a lovely pop of color. Berries absolutely everywhere. We hiked counter clockwise which was perfect, definitely best views. There was only a single time I was turning around to see the best views, that was short and we got to turn around and take it in at the summit of that ridge. This hike leaves you with hours and miles of time in the spot with the most beauty at the ridgeline and lakes basin. Despite reading the trip report before this, we also managed a wrong turn and unexpected outing to lunch lake which we did not regret. We felt it was beautiful and a different perspective than we saw later in the trail. We returned to the lakes basin again for lunch later on. All in all with detours, missed turns, and adventuring the hike was 21 miles, 5500ft elevation gain. Adding to my top hikes, I can’t wait to return.