South Fork Hoh River

Jon and I got an early start Saturday morning and were 8 miles in by 10:30 a.m. With the gorgeous weather, I decided I could make it to a nearby alpine lake and back before dark. He wanted to fish the river, so we split for the day. For the first solo half mile, I had to hike up the creek pictured below. It was steep, but the rocks were dry and easy to climb. After two hours of straight-up bushwhacking, I came to an opening with this lovely view of the river below. Shortly before I reached this opening, I disturbed a yellow-jacket hive and got stung five or six times on each leg and lost my water bottle in the ordeal... It was fun, trust me :)

After gaining about 2500 vertical feet after leaving the river, I reached my destination. Very few people have seen this view, as it's far off the beaten path. I'd been here twice before with other people, but never on a clear day. The view of Mount Olympus was great. I wandered around the lake, taking some photos, and startled a large bull elk. No photos of him though -- he was too fast in his disappearance! It took nearly 3 hours to get back to the river from the lake. The route I took was horrible, and I had to negotiate my way around several 30-40 foot cliffs. Jon was sleeping when I got back to camp at 6:00 p.m.