The Lower Lewis River is a good early season option when there’s still snow at higher elevations. Highlights include old-growth forest, uncrowded trails, and of course, the Lewis River.
My favorite place to see fall color is at Indian Heaven. On this two night backpacking trip, we hiked in via the East Crater Trail, camped at Bear Lake, and day hiked to Lemei Rock.
On this challenging three night backpacking trip, we stayed at Rachel Lake the first night, then continued up to Rampart Lakes for two more nights.
On this four day backpacking trip at Mount Rainier, we camped at Berkeley Park and did day hikes to Skyscraper Pass and Second Burroughs Mountain.
With high temps, biting black flies, and wildfire smoke, we cut this trip short after two nights but still had a great time in this scenic location.
Washington’s Olympic Coast is truly wild, with access limited to hikers and backpackers for long stretches of coast line. This trip to South Sand Point included a day hike to see ancient native petroglyphs at Wedding Rocks.
Royal Basin includes some of the best subalpine and alpine scenery in the Olympic Mountains. We began our trek camping next to Royal Creek before continuing on to basecamp at Royal Lake and explored the Upper Royal Basin on a day hike.
Located in the Olympic National Park, the North Fork Skokomish River Trail is a great low elevation trip for the spring when water levels are running high in the cascading river and the lush forest is filled with many shades of green.
Packwood Lake is a great early season backpacking option if you can find a good weather window. Even though the forecast called for rain every day, we lucked out and only had a brief period of bad weather.
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