This is a beautiful hike, we calculated it to be 17 miles (including the short side trip
to view one of the waterfalls near Royal Lake) with about 3100 ft elevation gain.
The hike starts at the Upper Dungeness trailhead in the Olympic National Forest
(this was our turn around point on the Lower Dungeness Trail hike last April).
Hike one mile along the Dungeness River
then take the Royal Basin trail to the right, following Royal Creek,
a short distance along this trail, you enter Olympic National Park
The trail transitions between forest and open slopes,
with a wide variety of wildflowers in bloom as you steadily climb uphill.
These clearings made good places to sit, enjoy the views and enjoy a snack.
Left: the Olympic Mountains that circle Royal Basin, our destination.
Right: looking across Royal Creek to tall thin waterfalls across the way
After 7 miles of hiking, we arrived at the north end of Royal Lake,
we choose to hike the west side trail (on the right) to the other end of the lake for our lunch break.
View of Royal Lake from the south end.
After lunch, we continued hiking up the trail, here entering Lower Royal Basin
Where there were more varieties of wildflowers and
Off in one corner, this waterfall coming off Mt Fricaba
The trail continues to climb, taking us to upper Royal Basin, the trail continues over the green hills
to a basin with several ponds formed from snow melting, and views of Mt Deception
and the Needles, we soaked our feet here and had a snack.
View looking over Lower Royal Basin, the trail winds between the mountain ridges.
We decided there was enough daylight, that we could take the short side trail on the
west side of Royal Lake to see the waterfalls that come down from Mt Clark.
Then we hike back on the other side (east) of Royal Basin
before heading home for more gorgeous views.
This mother grouse hurried her chicks away before I could take a photo
Wonderful day in the mountains!
No comments:
Post a Comment