This trail is my favorite on a hot summer day. It follows cold flowing Granite Creek through a tunnel of conifer and alder until you reach the lake basin. Some of the best views on this trail are found along the steep but well built first mile. After a short steep climb through young forest, the trail follows a narrow ridge with beautiful views into the Middle Fork Valley. The forest along this section is one of the highlights of the trail: 80-100 year old second-growth forest of Douglas-fir, hemlock, redcedar, and bigleaf maple. The stumps of the now gone old-growth forest are truly massive and the views into the steep ravines show a lush understory vegetation. Take your time on this beautiful forest hike.
The second half of the trail follows an abandoned forest road through lush under-growth full of flowers and berries. One of my favorites is goats beard, which has already set seed at the beginning of the trail and is still flowering in upper elevations, showing us how spring comes to the Cascades. There is no shortage of water, which flows cold and clear from many streams over granite bedrock. The gentle steady incline of the trail seems to be a favorite among trail runners and quite a number of very friendly dogs.
The forest gets younger with elevation and at the lake basin the legacy of logging is still apparent from young forest and old logging roads. But we have truly reached sub-alpine forest of mountain hemlock and subalpine fir, bear grass, pink mountain heather, and bog orchid. The wildflowers around the lake are gorgeous. If you are interested in flowers along the trail, check out iNaturalist for this hike. This time there seem to be few horseflies or mosquitoes at the lake but there seems to be a wasp nest at the large flat rock where people like to sit. Our dog got stung and could not sit still for some time. The cold clear water of the lake was well appreciated by everyone.
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