Checked before we left for the long 3hr drive to get here that everything was good, come to find out they had closed the road less then a 1/2mi in. Recommend calling before leaving to make sure that they reopened the road.

Decided to do the easy loop trail leaving from the Sol Duc Falls trailhead. The trail to the falls is in great condition and saw a half dozen people headed to the falls. Once past the falls, however, use caution. After crossing the bridge that spans the falls, I took the Lovers Lane trail towards the hot springs resort. The creek is flowing very fast right now, and the crossing was a little sketchy. It took me a few minutes to find an appropriate place to venture across slippery rocks. Past the crossing, I encountered multiple downed trees that could be tough to clamber over for some. If you make it across the creek, you will likely be able to make the trek through the next 1.5 miles of wet brush and tree covered trail. Past this point, the trail returned to soggy but downed trees were minimal. After walking through the resort area (closed for the season) I made my way through two campground loops and back on to the trail. There are multiple places where downed trees make the trail quite difficult to find for the next two or so miles back to the trailhead. I returned to my vehicle completely wet and dirty from climbing over so many logs. The falls, great. But I think the rest of the loop might be better saved for the springtime or after some of the debris has been cleared out.

I spent a decent amount of time this summer (~14 days total) working on this trail, mostly brushing it and cleaning drains, as well as a little check step/water bar construction at the trailhead by the resort. I know the trail quite well and consider it extremely easy (certainly beautiful spots abound that have that taste of old growth wilderness). Having never seen the Sol Duc area for herself, I decided to take my sister to see it for her visit to my place for Thanksgiving. Thinking a good introduction to be Lovers Lane, we set out for a simple day hike that would leave plenty of time to hike by Lake Crescent too.This was wrong. The trail is a mess and trashed by high winds and big trees! Soaking wet,tired, and hungry, we skipped anything to do with LC on the way back for a meal. Despite heavy rain and recent storms, the road up the Sol Duc Valley was free of trees and any debris. Parking at the Resort and B Loop were closed. We were 1 of 3 cars at the parking lot at the end of Sol Duc Road, although we saw no one past the Falls while on the trail. We decided to hike the loop clockwise, seeing the Falls first. The trail is completely fine from this point until shortly after the Canyon Creek Falls. From here until the long boardwalk over the pond the trail is storm beaten to the extreme. There are many areas where 1 or 2 large trees have awkwardly come down over the trail, and perhaps just as many areas where 5 or 6 (or more!) trees 3ft or more in diameter have come down in one spot, all of which made passage much more difficult. There was one jumble of old growths that we lost the trail for about 15-20 minutes and took significant searching to find the route past the mess of trees. Even between the Resort and the campgrounds (and in the campgrounds too!) there were many downed trees. Some large, and many awkward to pass. Being such a flat trail, there was not a slide or washout to worry about, however, flooding was a big issue. It poured rain on us the whole hike, and many places were completed flooded and under a foot or more of water for over 100 feet. (No drains could fix that...) This also took serious navigating at times. In fact pretty much the entire trail was in a puddle or flowing like a small stream. There was only one small creek that took some time to route find and negotiate over, as it was rocky, slippery, quick moving, and just a little too wide. Other stream and creek crossings posed no problems. Overall the loop took us 3.5 hours to navigate (1.5 over my slow estimate). Knowing this trail as an easy, flat, mellow loop - literally the epitome of what I consider an easy-National Park-Resort-Trail - it was quite a joy to see it SUCH A BIG MESS! Having worked there 2 months early the change sure was drastic to see. The Olympics are dynamic and very wet and sometimes the trails are just plain MEEEAAANNN, it made for much, much fun!! Throughout the trip breaks in the thick low clouds and fog revealed the familiar steep green ridges confining the upper Sol Duc Valley blanketed in quickly thickening snow, perhaps not more than 1,000 feet above our rainy river hike. Probably the most American Thanksgiving I've ever had.

Started out from the Sol Duc Falls trailhead at 10am. Headed up to Deer Lake, and followed the Little Divide Trail over to Mink Lake, and down to the Sol Doc Resort. The trails were all in good condition, only two larger blowdowns on the Little Divide Trail (both easy to step over), and one stream crossing above Mink Lake (small enough to jump across). Didn't encounter anyone past the Sol Duc Falls trail. Had planned to check out the hot springs, but the resort had closed for the season at 12pm.

What a great trip. We took our 3 sons. 5,8, and 10. All the boys did great so we pushed past the falls and continued. On more trails ip there, but the falls were absolutely amazing. Leaving was the hardest part of the entire trip.