Up then back down to Valhalla Peak from the Dosewallips trailhead.  4300 feet of gain over 3.5 miles. It is very step with very  little let up.   I would recommend using trekking poles.  There are compact sections of dry pine needles on sections of the upper trail which makes it hazardous.    The upper portion near the top is overgrown and it is hard to find in spots coming down at times   There are very minor blowdowns   The trail is mostly all shaded   There is one dangerous slide area to cross  see photo 

Heavy log blocked road about 3 miles from TH.   Using Archimedes ancient words it was leveraged off to the side.  10 AM.

I was the first person in the parking area at 6:30AM on Sunday August 13th. Note there are no facilities at the trailhead. It turned out I arrived at just the right time as I ended up having the first half of the trail and the summit all to myself - had I been twenty minutes or so later I would have had to share the summit with a few folks, which would have been fine but I do enjoy my solitude so that made my day extra special. I chose this hike because someone in a previous trip report said there were a dozen different kinds of mushrooms on this trail and I was not disappointed! Saw many kinds of lichen, fungi, and slime molds including  eyelash cups/common eyelash, chocolate tube slime, handsome club, both tapered AND devil's matchstick, candy lichen, lettuce lichen, honeycomb coral slime mold, coral mushroom, shingled hedgehog mushroom, collybia, stilbella, and a bunch more. Hike took awhile because I kept having to stop and photograph things. When I got to 5050 Pass I wasn't sure if I had the energy to climb up to Valhalla Peak but I decided to try since I was already right there and I'm glad I did! It wasn't too long or steep and the views were stunning. This was really the only part of the hike that had wildflowers. I only ended up passing about 15 folks on the way back to the trailhead, not bad for a Sunday. Excellent hike and I can't wait to come back in the fall to see what kinds of fun autumn shroomies I can find :)

Beautiful hike for a hot day— started at Tunnel Creek TH hiked up in the shade under the tall conifers along the creek. Had a snack by the creek at the shelter about ~3 miles up. Then turned up toward Harrison Lake and beyond. It’s a climb! Lots of peek a boo views of Mt Constance along the way. A bit of a steep scramble at the end to the top of Valhalla Peak. Still some pretty wildflowers in bloom and WOW what a 360 degree view! No snow at all.

Made it up to the parking lot for the Tunnel Creek trailhead at 7 am. One person was there. Looked like they'd camped. We waved at each other and we headed up the trail. There are a few trees down but only one was a bit challenging to go over. Loved that the trail skirts the water for the first 3 plus miles. Very pretty. We hit some snow fields at the first little lake. There were no prints to follow but we used navigation and made our way fine. We didn't need spikes but did use poles. There are some steep/rocky sections that take careful footing on this trail. We found the cutoff for the Valhalla trail to be a little overgrown at first, had I not had navigation I might have questioned the trail. It does get clearer as you go up. Sadly the clouds rolled in as we approached the summit. But, the flowers are starting to bloom. We sat for a bit, had a snack and then headed down. Quiet trail today, only saw 2 other hikers on our way down.