If your looking for a moderatly strenous day hike, Lena Lake in the Olympic National Park is a good trail to travel. The trail is well maintained, and easy to follow. It is about 3.5 miles from the trailhead to the Lena Lake Campground, with about 1,600 feet elevation gain.

The weather was great, no rain, lots of sun and very warm. The Lena Lake trail begins with a series of long switchback (I believe 9 in all) starting in second growth forest but soon blends into old growth forest with large trees, and fallen underbrush heavily overgrown with ferns and moss. There are two sturdy bridges the first crosses a dry riverbed and the second crosses a gentle cascading creek.

Lena Lake is a good sized lake surrounded by peaks, trees and peaceful silence. If you are planning on more than a day trip, there are several nice campsites near its banks.

Although the trip is about a 7-8 mile round-trip hike, I would plan on a full day to give plenty of time to enjoy the walk through the lush forest and the lake. It is mostly up hill on the way in, and all down hill for the return trip. Regardless, this hike makes for a day well spent.

The trail to Lena lake is wonderfully well maintained and in very good condition. The campsites dotting the lake's northern shore were abundant, well situated, and all around nice.

If you are planning a trip to Lena lake I highly recommend allowing an extra couple of hours to continue up on the Brothers trail through the Valley of the Silent Men. The size of the trees and lushness of foliage is other-worldly. This trail, though a little more rugged than the one up to Lena Lake, is also in nice condition, and the grade is quite easy.

There is basically no snow left on the route to the summit. The trip took 7.5 hours RT from the climbers camp - 4 hours up and 3.5 hours down. There was quite a bit of minor bouldering and steep loose rock along the way which made the going up tedius, and the down-climb even more so. Our party agreed that a rope should have been brought along. Water is still easliy available up to about 1/4 of the way from the top (about 15 min above lunch rock). The wildflowers were abundant (and such a wide array!), the views outstanding, and the fearless goats made for a bit of extra excitement.

Bring bug cream and watch for sliding rocks from those above you. I wore and would recommend a helmet.

We camped at Lena Creek again this weekend. Lena Creek was not my first choice for camping but it was Father’s day weekend so I went without to much complaint. The road to the other nearby trails is still washed out; my only real choice was to go up the Lower Lena Lake trail again. . I hiked to Lower Lena Lake last week so this week I wanted to go further.

I walked from my campsite at Lena Creek and arrived at the trail head at 10am. It was raining so the trail was not quite as crowded as usual. I leap fogged with a group of girl scouts for half of the hike then they kindly let me pass them at Lunch Rock. It only took me 1 hour and fifteen minutes to make it to the rock. After leaving the rock the trail passes by shoreline campsites. Most of the campsites were filled and the folks up there seemed to be camped very comfortably. The camps up there looked more comfortable than our car campsite down below. I would have pitched a tarp over our table so we could sit outside at the table and stay dry. But our table was covered with dirt and mud thanks to the antics of my 5 year-old. There so there was no point in pitching a tarp over the muddy wet table.

I arrived at the Brother’s climbing camp at about 2:30. The rain never let up for the entire hike up but it really started falling when I got to the camp. By this point I was also pretty tired and I was getting clumsy and a little disoriented. I lost the trail so I headed back toward a tent I saw in the campground and found backpackers outside the tent. They had just finished climbing The Brothers and they reported that the route finding was hard and the way was covered with snow near the top. They also pointed me in the right direction. The trail turns left at the campground and follows a tributary up. I followed the trail about 1/10 of a mile past the campground just so I could see something new. I had hiked up to the campground in the past so I wanted to go just a bit further. But I did not go far because the trail started getting steep and I was getting tired.


I walked back down to my car camp in the rain, taking a few breaks to ease the random aches and pains I was having and to take some pictures. I did not take any pictures on the hike up because my camera is not water proof and I had hoped the rain would stop by the time I headed down.

When I arrived back at the Lower Lena Lake trail head I found the ranger writing parking tickets and I could hear an awful howling noise coming from the campground.

I finished my hike at 6:45 and I rested up for about an hour before heading back up the trail with my family. We made it to the second switchback before my husband got exhausted and called it quits.

14.4 miles
2400 feet elevation gain

More details and pictures on my blog:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com

There were over 100 cars at the TH when we arrived, but the trail never seemed crowded as we were hiking. We were passed by many climbers who were going to climb the Brothers on Sunday. Flowers seen on the lower trail were: 1 spotted coral root, Rhododendrons, star flowers, twinflowers, bear grass and Canadian Dogwood. We hiked about a mile on the trail to Upper Lena Lake. Only a few yards from the start of the trail to the upper lake we found some areas with wild ginger blooming. There were a few trees to be stepped over on the upper trail--probably 2 feet in diameter. After turning around we took the old trail to the bridge across Lena Creek where we had a late lunch beside the creek.