We drove out to the Upper Dungeness Trailhead in the North Olympics to hike up to Royal Lake and Upper Royal Basin. This is a 16 mile round trip hike with 3,200 ft of gain. The first mile follows the Dungeness River Trail. The Dungeness River is flowing high.
The Royal Creek Trail turns off to the right before the bridge over Royal Creek. We walked onto the bridge to take a photo of Royal Creek, before heading up the Royal Creek trail.
About 1/3 mile up the Royal Creek Trail, the trail enters Olympic National Park. There were many small creek crossings in this gorgeous forest.
About 3 miles from the trailhead, the trail enters the first of several avalanche chutes, where wildflowers are blooming. In some of the open areas, there were views of the nearby peaks.
About 6 miles from the trailhead, the trail traverses the lower meadow below Royal Lake.
In one area, we saw hundreds of pussy toes in bloom!
7 miles from the trailhead lies Royal Lake
We took the trail to the left, which follows the lake shore. We took a lunch break here, watching the fish jump and enjoying the views. Across the lake, through the trees we spotted a distant waterfall.
we continued to the far end of the lake on our way up to Upper Royal basin, enjoying the variety of wildflowers.
We spotted a marmot before he crawled back into his den under this boulder.We also saw several deer along the trail beyond Royal Lake.
Lots of avalanche lilies here.
Upper Royal Falls near the top of the photo, hiking along Arrowhead Meadow.
Nearing Upper Royal Basin, Arrowhead Meadow below.
Creek crossing, Mount Mystery in the background.
One of the tarns in Upper Royal Basin, the Needles reflecting in the tarn.
View of Mount Mystery reflecting in the tarn, marsh marigolds along the shore.
Another tarn below.
We did a short meander though part of Upper Royal Basin
Mount Deception with a couple of tarns below.
We saw another marmot on our way back down through Arrowhead Meadow.
some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today:
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