Olympic National Park
July 28, 2023
Whew! We were exhausted after doing the longest hike I have ever done in a single day. It was 14 miles and every part of my body is sore. Although both my son and I have been to this park before, the only place we went in the past is the NE corner to Lake Angeles. This time we set off for the NW corner of the park and combined several trails forming a loop to see waterfalls and lakes. The entry into the park was beautiful with a large lake surrounded by solid green mountains of evergreen trees. The first trail was Sol Duc to the Sol Duc waterfall which was pretty. We then followed Deer Lake trail until the lake. This is where the trail became steeper, mostly roots and rocks and we started to slow down. The entire trail was surrounded by giant huckleberry bushes, devil’s club, salmonberries and nettles. We got nasty red rashes from the stingers and a sweet treat from the ripe berries. The lake was worth rough trip. The fish were rising, a duck family swimming and appropriately a doe and fawn along the waters edge.
After leaving the lake, we took Little Divide to loop over to the Mink Lake trail. This back trail was steep, rough and mosquito ridden. This is definitely the trail less taken as it was harder to find in certain areas and the only other hikers we saw were a backpacking group and one other single hiker. I was rather grateful that my son put on underwear this morning as he completely ripped out the backside of his pants while sitting on a log. There was loud frog activity by the marshy areas of this trail. We saw a few Northern Leopard frogs and a big Boreal toad. Mink lake was a pretty alpine lake that is popular with over night campers but by this time we barely stopped for a snack and moved on as we still had 4.5 miles to go. Near the trailhead there is a hot spring pool, a campground and cabin rentals. We were too tired to go swimming although the mineral rich water might have helped our sore muscles.
Total Cost: $97.00
