This Fourth of July weekend Kelly had to do some work, so I headed out backpacking with some friends to the Hoh River Trail in the Olympic National Park. It ended up being a 38 mile out and back hike from rain forest to a glacier. It was great to hike through so many ecosystems in one hike.
The hike started off with a 11 mile stroll through along the Hoh River passing some giant trees and lots of slugs along the way. It then started climbing 2100 feet over the next 4 miles to get to our first campspot at Elk Lake.
Elk Lake
Elk Lake isn't just a clever name, right at sunset we watched 6 elk come down and graze on the grasses around the lake. We also heard some bugling from them as we turned in for the night.
The next day we woke up and ate some breakfast and headed further up the trail for a day hike to see Blue Glacier. It was all uphill about another 2000 feet gain over 5 miles. At one point we crossed a rock slide area and had to descend on fixed ropes which was pretty fun.
Me climbing down the rock slide
We finally made it to Glacier Meadows Camping area where we ate lunch and filled up our water bottles. We then proceeded to climb the half mile snow field up to the Glacier Overlook. It was stunning up there. Out of the three days we were back packing, Saturday was by far the best weather, bright blue sky with plenty of sunshine.
Me at the top of Blue Glacier Over Look
If you can tell from the picture above. I ditched my Hiking boots on this trip and did it all in my Vibram KSO Trek's. They worked out great and kept me light on my feet.
We spent about an hour at the overlook and headed down passing some stunning views of the Olympic Mountains along the way.
A Glacier Valley
Just before we reached the Glacier Meadows Camp, I spotted a black bear climbing a tree just in front of us. We started to work our way into a better view of the bear to get a picture when we spotted the mother bear under the tree. Oohh, so we headed out of there making noise so we didn't agitate her. So no pictures of the bear. I did bring bear spray with us camping, but left it in my pack down at Elk Lake. Ooops.
Avoiding the bear, we got back to Elk Lake, grabbed our packs and headed to our last nights camping at Olympic Ranger Station. We spent the night there and then headed out the next morning for a our 9 mile hike out of the woods.
It was a great trip