Tag: Backpacking

Hike to Heart Lake

Trail to Heart Lake

One of the most heavily hiked trails in the Olympic National Park is the High Divide trail. The High Divide is a section of the ridge between the Sol Duc and Hoh Rivers. Overnight reservation permits are required and get booked up months in advance.

The first section of the High Divide loop follows the Sol Duc River Trail and then heads up along Bridge Creek (which is not easily accessible at most locations). The image above shows the trail climbing from Sol Duc Park to Heart Lake (shown below). I have hiked the trail to Heart Lake several times without continuing along the rest of the High Divide loop. The reasons to do so usually involve weather … or, early in the season) lots of snow left on the ridgeline.

Looking down on Heart Lake
Stream feeding Bridge Creek on the climb to Heart Lake

The trail to Heart Lake climbs up into and through some of the finest samples of mountain meadows in the Olympics. (see above) There are many small streams, keeping the flowers well watered and providing a water source for thirsty hikers.

On the return, it is worth the short side trip to Sol Duc Falls (shown below).

Sol Duc Falls
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Before/After Single Stringer Bridge

The Old Bridge

I have often posted images of the trail up the North Fork Skokomish … or showed images of the area. I was going through photos and found this nice pair of photos about 5 miles up the trail, where it crosses a small creek. A National Park crew was installing a new bridge. With hand rails on BOTH sides! Quite nice.

The New Bridge
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Old Hiking Photo

Starting out to cross the Cascades

Back in the ’60’s, one of my first long hikes was an attempted crossing of the Cascades using some ‘high routes’. A friend and I were going with just the two of us and (looking back on it) overly optimistic plans. The weather didn’t cooperate: we ended up getting snowed on for a day or so after the third day or so. Perhaps we were lucky that we decided to bail. The weather remained stormy for several days (it was mid-August and a cold front blew in). We hiked to the nearest road, hitched a ride into the nearest bus line. It was still an adventure … and probably safer than if we had continued. It would have been a rugged go, and I’m not sure we would have been able to keep up our schedule … even if we found the right track … since we were following ‘high routes’ for a lot of the time, we weren’t using trails. So route finding would have slowed us down … probably more than we expected.

That’s my pack and ice ax just after we departed Lucerne (Washington) a SMALL town along Lake Chelan that is boat only access. This is my only photo of the trip. Taken with a Kodak Instamatic, I believe. One of my earliest remaining images.

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Ooops. My mistake (but it turned out well)

Soft image Meadow Walk

Starting off in the early morning in the high country of the Olympics, it can be a little be chilly, even in the summer. When I took this image, I thought there was something odd looking through the viewfinder. After clicking the image, I checked the lens and it had acquired a thin layer of condensation on the lens. I cleaned the lens, but the image was a keeper anyway. This is the West Fork Dosewallips trail … frequently hiked by folks coming up the East Fork Quinault and crossing Anderson Pass and exiting the Dosewallips Trail on a cross Olympic National Park hike. (we were dayhiking up LaCrosse Pass from Honeymoon Meadow)

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Old Picnic Table

Old Picnic Table

The old picnic table sits near the beginning of the East Fork Quinault Trail that runs up to the Enchanted Valley and Anderson Pass in Olympic National Park. The road used to continue to this point, but it is now trail. The table sits so close to the trailhead that once folks are ‘loaded up’ there isn’t much interest in taking a break at this point. So it’s abandoned to the moss and lichen and time is working its magic.

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