Mt Muller Loop Hike

A beautiful, warm, sunny day! We headed out to the Olympic Peninsula to hike the Mt Muller Loop Trail, west of Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Forest. This is a low elevation hike, so available to complete early in the season. 12.8 mile loop, but 13 miles when add in the 0.1 side trail out to the "summit" of Mt Muller and back. 3,200 ft of elevation gain. This trail is open to horses, bicycles and off leash dogs.

 The trail is mostly in the forest, with some open areas up the 4 mile long ridge. We did the trail clockwise, going up the steeper side first, going up 2,000 ft in 2.5 miles.

There were several places where the trail opens on the ridge with views to the Olympic mountains to the south.

 But most of the trail is in the woods, we were glad for the shade on this very warm day.

more open areas along the ridge trail has it goes up and down.

We did the short side trail to the summit, there were no views there.

But very soon on the trail, is a very short spur to Panorama Point, with beautiful views, to the west lies Pyramid Mountian and Lake Crescent. We could also see Mt Baker far to the west across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Panorama view from Panorama Point:

 another panorama a short ways along the trail.

 After 7 miles from the trailhead, the trail begins to descend. About 8.25 miles there is a very short spur to Fout's Rock House. This is two very large boulders resting against each other. View from the side.

 These boulders are so large, when I stood in front of them, my camera only captured the small space between them at the bottom.

After 9+ miles, the trail is a flat return journey back to the trailhead. Along the way, this trail combines with the paved Olympic Discovery Trail. Keep your eyes open for the sign marking the return to the dirt trail back to the parking area.

The ranger told me there are 150 kinds of wildflowers along the trail. This early in the season we only saw a few, along with some blossoms and fungi:

View of Mt Muller from Hwy 101