Royal Basin

 Had a fabulous hike up to Royal Basin in Olympic National Park (16 miles rt with 3,150 ft of elevation gain). The hike begins at the Upper Dungeness Trail and continues for a fairly flat mile along the Upper Dungeness Trail in the Olympic National Forest.









The trail to Royal Lake and Basin turns off to the right before the Upper Dungeness Trail crosses over Royal Creek on this log bridge.

 There is lots of water in Royal Creek. The trail soon enters Olympic National Park and will follow up along this valley all the way to Royal Lake. There are several places where the creek is easy to approach and some campsites along the way.

 The trail gently climbs for about 4 miles, there are several small creeks crossing the trail.

















The trail crosses a couple of avalanche chutes which give a glimpse of the peaks flanking the valley.
At 5 miles from the trailhead, the trail begins to climb more steeply.

At 6.3 miles from the trailhead, the trail goes through a meadow basin where there is a backcountry camping area.

We saw the first of many deer here. This one was walking through the lupine.

Shortly after this, the trail crosses Royal Creek on a log and goes up another short steep section.

We reached the north end of Royal Lake about 7 miles and about 2,500 ft in gain from the trailhead.

We stopped for a lunch break along the eastern shore of Royal Lake and watched fish swimming and jumping in the lake.

From the lake it is about a mile and 650 ft of elevation gain to Upper Royal Basin. The trail continues from the south end of Royal Lake after a short climbs traverses through a beautiful meadow on the way to the upper basin.

 There is a waterfall in the corner of this meadow area.













The trail continues across the creek from the waterfall, this was our trickiest water crossing today.












The trail then climbs steeply up to the Upper Basin on a narrow track.  Looking back down at the meadow.











Nearing the upper basin.

 Beautiful fresh snow melt in the creeks.

boot tracks lead through the alpine meadows over a slight ridge to the west.

 Here there are several tarns at the feet of towering peaks.

We spent almost 2 hours walking around these tarns,

 enjoying the mountains reflecting in the blue water,

We sat along the shore and soaked our feet in the icy water, Mt Deception towering above.

 Mt Fricaba

 So beautiful

 We also saw some Olympic marmots up here in the rocks.

 There were lots of marsh marigolds in bloom along the creek today.

Back at the south end of Royal Lake I saw a deer on the trail,

 behind us were 3 young fawns.

 It was fun to watch them.

When we got back to the north end of the lake, we saw the sun shinning on the peaks behind us.













We were able to quickly hike back down this long but mostly gentle trail before the sun set. Here a rabbit crossed our path.

Some of the many wildflowers and other flora we saw on the trail today: