Hiking : Lake Crescent

We decided earlier this summer that before we left to go back east, we needed to visit Olympic National Park again! It was so nice when we visited in the spring, and it has lots of things that we can only see out here - like huge mountains, elk, and the Pacific Ocean! Our second trip was a quicker trip - two nights instead of four - so we concentrated on one small corner of the park. When we visited in the spring, two of the places we wanted to visit weren't open yet for the year - Lake Crescent Lodge and Hurricane Ridge. 

Lake Crescent is a big lake carved by glaciers that's so clear and blue, it reminded us of the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Pacific Northwest. The lodge was really cute, but we didn't stay for long since we wanted to do a hike along the lake. The trail we went on was called Spruce Railroad Trail - it followed the path of an old railroad that was once used for logging. Our hiking book rated it highly, and we'd never hiked on a trail along a lake before, so it was settled! It was a little bit confusing because the main trailhead was closed and the other trailhead wasn't completely clear, but after a bit of driving, we finally arrived!

The trail started out wide, flat, and paved but eventually became more of a real trail through the woods. The forest was really pretty and the lake was even better! We saw the lodge again, from way across the lake. We pretty much just marvelled at the perfect water the whole way. Luckily, there weren't too many obstacles in the path to watch out for! We only passed a few people the entire time and felt lucky that we had the whole thing to ourselves. Well, us and some deer - - -