Mount Storm King and Marymere Falls Winter Hikes

 We headed out to the Storm King Ranger Station on Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park today to combine two hikes. First, up Mount Storm King, a 3.8 mile hike with 1,700 ft of elevation gain. Second, a 2 mile hike with 200 ft of elevation gain to Marymere Falls, but since they share the same trail for 0.5 miles, it was only an additional mile for us.
The trail starts at the Ranger Station that takes you to a short tunnel under Hwy 101. The first 0.5 mile is a nice flat walk in the woods.

Here the trail splits at a large fern covered mossy boulder. Straight to Marymere Falls, and left up the hill to Mount Storm King.

The rest of this hike is uphill (2000 ft in 1.4 miles). We would hike through the woods, passing large cedar trees and

many madrona trees.

Occasionally, we would have peak-a-boo views of nearby peaks.

I love all the varying shades of green and the moss covered rocks and trees.

 Almost 1 mile up the mountain (1.4 from the start of the trail) the view opens up. Here, we looked down on a fog covered Lake Crescent.

 There were lots of nice rocky cliff walls to see.

 From here, the trail continues to climb another 0.5 mile and 400 ft up a steep path with a long drop off.

There is a short section where the trail drops off on both sides.

From the "official" end of the trail, there are gorgeous views looking into the Barnes Creek Valley, we could see Marymere Falls way in the distance.

Taking a moment to enjoy the views! This is the end of the "official" trail. There are some ropes to help you up the next 0.25 mile where you can get great views of Lake Crescent. It is a steep exposed section. We decided not to go up the damp trail today. Great excuse to come back another time.

 We noticed the clouds were lifting on our way down.

When we returned to the first viewpoint, we were excited to see the clouds had mostly lifted and we had a great view of the east end of Lake Crescent. We were able to see the mountains far across Puget Sound to the cascades (probably in Canada).

 Found some color along the trail:

When we reached the bottom of the trail, we headed off to Marymere Falls. The first part of the trail is nice and flat, a could cool down.

 Bridge crossing on Barnes Creek.

 Then the trail climbs 200 ft up to Marymere Falls overlook. Here we had a sneak peak of the falls through the trees.

90 ft Marymere Falls.
There is a nice loop trail with a lower and upper viewing area. The section closest to the creek was closed due to fallen trees and what looked like trail erosion. It was possible to get to the lower viewing area from the upper viewing area today. However, that meant returning back up the trail, before heading down ;)

 Some lovely trees we saw along the trail today:

After the hike, I walked a very short distance down to the shore where I found these mallard ducks resting.

View of the east end of Lake Crescent from the dock:

 Mount Storm King, as seen from the dock.

 We then did a short drive to the north shore. Looking south across Lake Crescent towards Mount Snow King.