Sol Duc Falls — Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

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.