We decided to do the trail after lunch and by the time we got to Snoqualmie Pass it was raining there. The trail head is easily found, at the end of the long West Summit parking. We waited for half an hour till it stopped and started then. It was cloudy and cold and still a bi drizzling. The view from the ski slopes were very nice, we saw a rainbow and ate some huckleberries, quite bitter though. You cross under three ski lifts, then the trail gets into the forest. We met PCT hiker at the first lake (Beaver Lake) who has been hiking from North California. After beaver Lake the trail descends and you will see soon the lake on your right hand side among the trees. When you are down and the trail flattens again, there is a crossing with sign Lodge Lake to the right. The lake was nice, there was fog coming up from it and when we decided to go back, it was already raining again and it rained all the way back. It is a nice hike even for small kids used to hiking a bit.

Lodge Lake turned out to be a great hike for families with little kids - or a much, much older XXL kid with creaky knees... so I'll write this as the dad I am, having taken my now-grown kids hiking at various ages.

Drove up I90 to Exit 52, Snoqualmie Summit West. Got off the freeway, immediately turned into the Summit parking lot, turned right at Julie's Chair and chose the middle of three broad westbound parking lots, which curved away to the left - around the corner found two large trailhead signs and the trailhead.

Hiked a few hundred yards in deep, shaded forest; burst out onto the western fringe of Summit Ski Area runs. The trail climbed gently but continuously for the next ¾ mile, across open ski slopes covered with ferns, Paintbrush, many other flowers; great views of Guye Peak, Red Mountain, Snoqualmie Mountain and others. Eventually topped out near a "log cabin" lift hut on right; a few hundred yards further and on the right at roughly one mile was Beaver Lake (more of a pond) with apparently no accessible shoreline. Entered nice second or third cut shady forest, strolled through a pleasantly breezy saddle, dropped another mile to the sidetrail leading to Lodge Lake. Had a snack; walked back out.

Earlier trip reports detail the many flowers seen en route, the 500 feet gained to Beaver Lake, the 375 gained from Lodge Lake back up to Beaver Lake. A couple earlier reports also mentioned some difficulty finding the side trail to Lodge Lake, tho' the PCT is very obvious the entire route. So to find the side trail: as you descend southbound on the PCT after Beaver Lake you'll cross about a half dozen wood plank "bridges", lying more or less on the ground. One of these - and only one - has a very pronounced kink to the right about halfway along its length, the rest of them are straight. So, after crossing this "kinked" bridge, walk +/- 250 yards to the next straight bridge. 10 yards before that next straight bridge the obvious lakeshore trail leaves to the right, about 20 yards out passing through a vertical cutout in a 30" diameter log, visible from the PCT. And there IS a little brown sign in a nearby tree, about 8' up, saying "Lodge Lake"... This trail very gently drops about 100 yards through huckleberry bushes to the lakeshore, which has no beaches but looks like good swimming. There's a couple small campsites where the trail hits the lake, maybe more here and there (I didn't look).

The PCT up to Beaver Lake is in great shape; the PCT from there down to Lodge Lake is rockier, more rugged, generally a little more challenging. So if your kids are starting to burn out by Beaver Lake that might be a good turnaround point. Or, if you have really little ones, the few hundred yards from the car through the forest to the ski slopes might be enough - carry a picnic lunch, watch them play in the flowers. And when you exit the forest about 300 yards in there's a gravel track on the left, leading down in open grassland back to the parking lot - your toddler can do a half-mile loop!

Parking permit required at the trailhead; I don't know about parking in the ski area lot, near the bottom of Julie's Chair. There is a Forest Service Visitors Center nearby, gas station, store, restaurant across the old highway.

For families this trail compares very favorably with the much more popular and crowded Snow Lake trail: half the distance (4 miles roundtrip instead of 8), half the vertical (900 total instead of 1700), more shade (entirely shaded from Beaver Lake on), many fewer people. Lodge Lake doesn't have the broad open areas and rocky, swimmable shoreline that Snow Lake has, but nobody's perfect... Bring sunhats and sunscreen for little ones walking across the ski slopes - the views are great but there's no shade for quite a while.

Hazards: none. No snow on trail or near trail; just a few skeeters; no water on trail (a few rivlets just before Lodge Lake, don't think I'd drink it); no blowdown blocking any part of the trail. If you can treat the slight freeway noise like a rushing river, and the open ski slopes as a gorgeous avalanche flowerfield - you'll have a great time!

I haven't found this in any guide book; Green Trails #207 Snoqualmie Pass.

In a book called Wildflower Hikes Washington, I found Lodge Lake at Snoqualmie Pass—3 miles round trip, 500 feet elevation gain in, 375 feet out, high point 3500 feet, part of the Pacific Crest Trail; the trailhead is at the Snoqualmie Summit Ski area. From I-90 going east we took the first right turn into the parking area and followed a gravel road to the parking lot and the trailhead.

Most of the wildflowers were in the first mile, which was mostly in the open areas cleared for skiing: bunchberry (Canadian dogwood), wild strawberry, heather, rosy spirea, rosy twisted stalk, false lily-of-the-valley, star-flowered Solomon’s seal (not open yet), marsh marigold, bead lily, foam flower, Indian paintbrush, a very few purple asters, Sitka valerian, and lots and lots of yellow wood violets and violet ones too. New to me: a clump of yellow flowers we identified as Gold star, Crocidium multicaule, but now I see so many yellow flowers in the book I’m not sure.

In the forested areas we found trillium in all stages, from new white to dark purple. New to me was a ground cover which the book called “running clubmoss” but the N. Carolinians called “running cedar.” They said it is protected in N.C. because florists buy it to use in floral arrangements. And at the lake, lots of stinky but beautiful skunk cabbage.

We almost missed the junction with the trail to Lodge Lake, the sign was so high and inconspicuous. It was quite buggy at the shore so we went back to the junction where there were several nice logs and ate our lunch there. On one of the logs there was a fine network of dark veins that ran under the bark. Nancy identified it as phloem, which the dictionary defines as “part of a vascular bundle…forming the food-conducting tissue of a plant.” None of us had ever seen it before.

There were several blowdowns, but only one difficult to get around, and one stream crossing on rotten logs. Lots of mud and water on the trail.

The book I use to identify flowers is Wildflowers of Washington a Lone Pine Field Guide by C.P. Lyons.

The trail to Lodge Lake is pretty overgrown in places and is suffering from erosion as well. A few blowdowns also block the path. As it's part of the Pacific Crest Trail, this is surprising.

The whole area seems to be a wet environment, even in summer, as witnessed by plants like Bunchberry growing even in the hot, unshaded area under the ski lifts. As a result, this is a good trail to look for bog plants.