hiking the Seven Lakes Loop and Hoh River trail in Olympic National Park in Washington

Olympic National Park is huge and diverse, you can’t just find a place to stay and reach all of the trails. If you do that, your travel times to trailhead will get into the 2 hours timeframe.

I explored two areas that I found amazing: part of the Seven Lakes loop and the Hoh rain forest.

Seven Lakes Loop

The Seven Lakes loop was something that I wanted to hike, but I was at a stage that I was not prepared for long hikes, so I decide to do an in and out on the southern portion, hike to Lunch Lake and turn back.

The first thing you run into are the Sol Duc falls (do the counterclockwise route of the loop) and you can easily do the smooth waterfall effect with your camera without a tripod since there is plenty of stuff to rest your camera on.

The trail is mostly level at this point and then it takes you to the first lake, which you can get some beautiful reflections:

I love these narrow trails in the forest. Past the lake, the trail starts gaining elevation.

And then you reach an intersection; to the left you will take a short hike to Lunch Lake.

With that view, I decided to stop going further and get down to the lake and have lunch. The lake on the right is Clear lake.

With that view, it was worth coming down the switchbacks to the lake.

Clear Lake is so beautiful ………

Hoh Rain Forest

The Hoh Rain Forest trail should be renamed the Hoh Magical Forest trail. You have never seen suck a beautiful rain forest and moss covered trees. This is a place to bring a tripod since the light is low (some of my pics were not that sharp due to that).

The trail is flat all the time, with the Hoh river at your right. You just hike until you decide to turn around. Take a look at these magical trees.

I reached a point where I could get to the river for a nice view.

I will leave you will a few images from other general areas ……….