Deer Lake, Sol Duc Falls & Bogachiel Peak — Thursday, Jul. 22, 2010

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

The weather was beautiful. Sunny and in the 70's. Trail conditions were good. No snow at Deer Lake. Bring mosqito spray and bug neting. Although if you found this hike in the Best Hikes with Children - Western Washington and the Cascades Volume 1 2nd Edition: Author Joan Burton - the hike is not easy for Children as noted in Hike #92. I would say this is a moderate hike for children 13 and under. The first .9 mile is easy to the falls. Take a moment to hang out at the falls and enjoy the cool mist and noise of the falling water. the next 3.1 miles to Deer Lake is a steady grind up. The trail is rocky and requires little guys to step up a lot. I had a 9 and 11 year old on the hike and it was a tough hike for them. They were troopers though and we made it to the lake with no complaints. The hike meanders up Canyon Creek, so you are always being serenaded by the sound of falling water. There are 2 camp sites located just off the trail on the way up to Deer Lake if you are hiking with little ones and get tired and dont want to push on to the lake, but I recommend pushing onto the lake. The trail has ample places to stop for breaks when hiking with childdren. Two of my kids favorites were the log bench just before reaching the bridge at the upper falls and the switch back corner just after the butt tree. The trail switches back several times before you get to the lake. Just prior to getting to the lake the trail opens up and you can see the water. This was the best part to hear my boys yell out there is water ahead dad and the Oooo and the Aahhh as they saw the snow capped peaks at the far end of the lake. We camped on the east side of the lake. There are several nice camp sites on this side and close to a running stream that lulls you to sleep at night. We had a deer walk through our camp site in the morning! I would suggest camping on the West side of the lake, so you get the nice morning sun to warm you up sooner (there are no fires allowed at the lake). If you are really lucky try to get the site at the south end of the lake. The site has a nice view of the snow capped mountains, over looks the lake, and has a nice shallow beach area for kids to wade in the frigid water. The boys wanted to find snow after setting up camp, so we started to hike up to the 7 Lakes Basin. After 45 minutes of hiking my little adventurers realized they were tired and the snow was much higher than they had expected, so we turned around to have dinner. The boys explored the nearby Meadow Trail and skipped rocks in the lake and the stream. We stayed one evening. This would make a great base camp with children for day hikes out of the area if you planned to stay multiple nights. The hike back was less strenuous, but my 9 year old took a few tumbles due to some of the larger steps for him to step down. He didn't get hurt. I just thinks he was in too much of a hurry to get back to the car.