For more on Lake Crescent, see our Spruce Railroad Trail and Barnes Creek web pages.
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04/04/24 - Spruce Railroad Trail with Trilliums

It was spring break, so the Spruce Railroad Trail was busy. There were a lot of families with children. Our goal was to find trilliums. Lake Crescent is about 600 feet above sea level, so spring tends to come a bit later, but we were lucky. We found trilliums. There were just a few, but like children of spring break, we're seeing signs of spring.

The forest floor

A trillium

Another trillium

Yet another trillium

View from the Devil's Punchbowl

Rock flowers

More rock flowers

Most of the trail is a road now, but there are a few bits of the old hiking trail preserved.

More of the old trail

Toad lily

Mount Storm King dominating the lake

Clouds and snow in the mountains

Rock garden

More rock flowers

Sedums

One of the little side streams

Another little side stream

Keywords: lake crescent, spring, spruce railroad, trillium

11/14/22 - Changing Seasons Along Lake Crescent

We wanted an easy trail with a bit of sun. For us, that meant the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent. It used to be a forest trail. Now it's more of a road, much wider and paved, but it's still a pretty walk along a pretty lake in a great mountain setting. The trail itself was just below the the snow line, and it has always been easy going. Highlights were some fall colors and the setting.

A higher section of the trail, up 50-100 feet into the land of the snows

A glimpse of Storm King

Exposed rock

The bridge at the Devil's Punchbowl

High contrast forest

Storm King again

There's still a bit of the original wild trail.

Rose hips

More of the trail

The Barnes Creek valley

There was a little bird there, but we were not quick enough on the shutter.

A bit of fall color

Along the lake

A more cooperative bird on a tree

That bird again

Ferns along a snowy section

More forest

Keywords: lake crescent, spruce railroad

08/23/19 - Marymere Falls

We haven't been getting out to Marymere Falls lately. The construction on route 101 along Lake Crescent with its 45 minute delays has discourage us. We took advantage of a pause in the work to take the 50 minute falls loop. It was a bright sunny day, and the forest was beautiful with the bright illumination. There were a good number of others out visiting the falls which were relatively quiet as one might expect in the late summer.

The wide walk to the falls

Another view en route, dark trees, bright sun

The bridge

Water in the canyon

The falls

A view of the falls from the upper overview

Pyramid Peak visible through the trees

Keywords: lake crescent, marymere falls, summer

07/12/19 - Second Beach - Low Tide

There have been some really low tides at the West End beaches, but road work at Lake Crescent has made it difficult to get out there except on weekends. This time, however, time and tide did wait for us, so we made our way out to Second Beach at an extreme low tide. According to the GPS, most of our walk was underwater, though with the low tide we were always on dry sand. We made our way out to the big seastack that is usually cut off by water and explored. This time, we didn't even have to wade, and we were able to make our way almost all the way around the seastack.

The big news was starfish everywhere, but more on that in another post. For this post, the big news was a journey out to a usually inaccessible sea stack and getting a chance to explore its caves, beaches and tide pools.

GPS map showing us walking on water

Stairs to the beach

The seastack at extreme low tide

At the seastack

Hidden cave on the far side

One of the sea birds

Exploring the far side

Another view from the far side

The seastack via land bridge

Barnicles on the rocks

Exploring the seastack, misty skies

The near side of the seastack

Mysterious caves

The main seastack is on the right.

Across the beach

Sea, sand and seastacks

Algae on the rocks

Plovers

The candelabrum tree, a happy mutant, with three branches again

Keywords: beaches, birds, lake crescent, second beach, tides

05/17/18 - Sol Duc Falls And Beyond

We braved the construction on Route 101 along Lake Crescent and were pleased to only be delayed perhaps twenty minutes on our way west. Our goal was the Sol Duc Falls trailhead where we made our way first to the falls, in full spring rush, and then onward and upwards to the bridge over Canyon Creek. We almost climbed 1000'. Deer Lake was another 600' or so, but we had climbed all we could.

There was no snow on the trail, though we did see patches of snow in the woods. We did see lots of trilliums and lots of running water in the Sol Duc River, in Canyon Creek and seeping from the rocks and pooling on the trail. It's a beautiful but tiring trail. We returned to the car happy but exhausted. We encountered another twenty minute delay on the way back, but we considered the extra time on the road well worth it.


Sol Duc Falls

A trillium

A curtain of drips

Some unmelted snow

Another trillium, artfully arranged

Canyon Creek

A double header

Canyon Creek again

A minor waterway

The forest

Even more trilliums

Keywords: lake crescent, sol duc, spring, trillium, deer lake

02/10/18 - Along Lake Crescent

With so many trails closed this time of year, we often get back to the Spruce Railroad Trail. It's more of a country road now, but it still has its charms. One in particular is the special, bonus surprise waterfall about an hour's walk west, just before the second railroad tunnel. With all the winter rain, it was running. To be honest, it was trickling, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

We stopped a bit shy of our usual goal. There had been a rock fall, and while the trail was passable, we didn't want to bother with the bad footing. This is a great time to get out to Lake Crescent, even when the skies are gray.


The special, bonus surprise waterfall

More of a trickle actually

Fallen rocks on the trail

The trail

A fallen log leads into the lake

More of the trail

Even more, with mossy rocks

The lake again - Barnes Valley

The footbridge

More of a country road

Another little waterfall

Keywords: lake crescent, spruce railroad, surprise waterfall, trails, waterfall, winter

01/04/18 - Winter at Marymere Falls

Now that construction on 101 along Lake Crescent has stopped for the winter, we went out to Marymere Falls. There was a bit of snow on the ground, and the forest was in its wintry colors. Barnes Creek was silver blue and running freshly. It wasn't a long walk. The loop to the falls takes less than an hour, but it was nice getting out to an old favorite hike.

Marymere Falls

Looking down at snow and Barnes Creek

Winter water

The footbridge, free of ice

Another look at the winter creek

Just a bit of snow

Walking through the woods

Keywords: barnes creek, lake crescent, marymere falls, winter

11/09/16 - Lake Crescent Rainbow

We saw a rather dramatic rainbow the other day out at Lake Crescent. You can see its reflection on the water.

Signs and portents

Keywords: lake crescent, atmosphere

08/18/16 - Storm King

Hurricane Ridge Road is being repaired. We were planning to climb to Klahane Ridge, but the line at the park entry station ran back past the Lake Dawn turn off. It looked like a long wait, so we made a U-turn and headed out to Barnes Creek determined to climb something or another. What we wound up climbing was Storm King, the peak dominating the south side of Lake Crescent.

To be honest, we only made it up to the ledge where we had a great view of Pyramid Peak and points north. Serious climbers go up another 300 feet or so to the actual peak, but we were at our limit. This trail is always challenging. Unlike the Switchback Trail up to Klahane Ridge, the Storm King trail never lets up. It is steep and demanding all the way. There are no easy switchbacks. Worse, it has been dry this year, so the trail was sand and pebbles, terrible footing.

Next time, it’s Klahane Ridge, for sure.


A good omen - We saw this woodpecker on our way to the climb.

Trail on a slope

A view from the ledge

A look down at the road

More of the trail

Keywords: barnes creek, lake crescent, storm king

03/20/16 - Spring on the Spruce Railroad Trail

We were out on the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent recently. We had a great view of Storm King with its upper reaches dusted with snow. There was also a lot of water flowing into the lake on the various little streams the trail crosses. Even better, a sign of spring, our first skunk cabbage of the year.

Storm King

One of the many streams

Another of the many streams

The trail

Our first skunk cabbage of spring

Keywords: lake crescent, spring, spruce railroad, storm king

02/05/16 - Lake Crescent

It is still winter, but here and there we see signs of spring. There were hints, just hints, on the Spruce Railroad Trail along Lake Crescent.

A view across the lake of the Barnes Creek valley

Signs of spring?

A living rock wall

More signs of spring

Another view of the lake

Keywords: spruce railroad, spring, lake crescent

08/16/15 - In Search of Water

This has been a dry summer, and it shows. Rivers just aren't flowing the way they usually do at this time of year. They're about a month or so off, with the current August flow more like the usual flow in late September. The trails are dry, too, with crumbly dirt and lots of loose pebbles.

In search of water we went to Barnes Creek and were pleased to see that Lake Crescent still has a fair bit of water. We started climbing the Mount Storm King trail to get a better view of the lake, but we didn't get far. The trail was crumbling, and it is a steep trail. If we were slipping on the way up, coming down would be treacherous. We turned around and took a look at Marymere Falls. It was nice to see some flowing water.

At the pebble beach we could see just how low the flow was in Barnes Creek. The river was much narrower and the beach much larger than usual. Then we walked a bit up the Barnes Creek trail and got a few glimpses of the river. We got our water fix, at least for now, but we're hoping for some real rain.

Water in the waterfall

A bright sunny day

Looking up Barnes Creek from the bridge

The forest and bright sunlight

More forest trail

Keywords: barnes creek, lake crescent, marymere falls, storm king, summer, trails

03/04/15 - Storm King

The climb from Barnes Creek up to the Mount Storm King overlook is simply the hardest trail we hike on any regular basis. The first 500 feet, up to the relatively flat ramada area, is horribly steep with switchbacks and tree root staircases along the way. Well, we managed to climb up to about 1100' which wasn't all that far from the overlook at 1350', but it was all we could do.

There is a pretty valley overlook at about 900', but after that comes an area we think of as the chute. It's a relatively steep climb of more than 100 feet almost completely on a trail of small rocks and loose soil that make it hard to get a solid foothold. Going up wasn't too bad. Our hiking sticks made a big difference. Coming down was much harder. There is nothing like the ground shifting underfoot as one gets ready for one's next step onto unknown footing.

By dint of extreme, possibly ridiculously extreme, caution, we made it back without injury. Are we going to do this again? Of course, and maybe next time we'll get to the overlook.

The valley view after 900' of climbing

Madronas by the trailside

A teasing peek at Lake Crescent

Keywords: lake crescent, trails

08/19/14 - Spruce Railroad Trail Closed for Paving

For at least five years, and probably longer, there have been plans to turn the nature trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent into a road for bicyclists. Various plans had been floated, and hearings packed with road lobbyists have been held. The environmental plan, which flatly asserts that a four acre asphalt feature hard by a deep water lake has no environmental impact, should be good news for developers everywhere.

The official notice
For years, the project seemed to wait, but earlier this year, we ran into some folks from the park service who were salvaging some of the hundreds of ferns and other plants that would be destroyed by the road project, Now the project is underway. The trail is closed at the eastern end. We noticed the signs about a week before construction started. The park and local media have been surprisingly quiet about the project, though the park did issue a press release at the same time they posted the closing notices. The construction is expected to run through late October. We are definitely going to miss the old trail. If nothing else, we're tender footed and like to walk on a soft dirt surface now and then. This is another victory in the war on nature trails. On a positive note, we are hoping that bicyclists and others, who might never have considered an unpaved trail, will enjoy the new paved version which will connect Sequim, Port Angeles and the West End. We gather this stage of construction will run to the Devil's Punchbowl, ending at the first tunnel, so you can still grab a kayak or canoe and explore the trail to the west, or you can drive around to the western trailhead via Camp David Junior Road which starts near Fairholm.

Keywords: lake crescent, trails

04/18/14 - Trillium Season

It's spring. The trilliums are out at Lake Crescent and the Olympic golden salamanders are on the march. What more can we say?

A trillium

A salamander

Indian paintbrush

More trilliums

Another salamander

Keywords: lake crescent, salamander, spring, trillium

10/08/13 - Lake Crescent

The park may be closed, but Lake Crescent is still there, as is Storm King. We took a short walk on the Spruce Railroad Trail and enjoyed the scenery. We also ran into a late season salamander, so it isn't winter yet.

The lake and soft light

Storm King and its shadow

A late season salamander

Keywords: lake crescent, salamander, spruce railroad, storm king

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