Upper Lena Lake
The trail to Lena Lake is a pretty, and popular, weekend destination. But hearty hikers and backpackers who venture to Upper Lena Lake will leave the crowds behind and experience a little bit of nirvana.
Upper Lena Lake sits in a gorgeous alpine meadow with Mount Lena and Mount Bretherton looming overhead. With the views, the flowers and heather, and the lake, you will be glad you expended the effort to climb up here. The first part of the hike follows the trail to Lena Lake (described in detail in our Hiking Guide). The way trail is usually in good shape and climbs moderately, gaining 1300 feet in three miles. There are 28 established campsites at Lena Lake - and on a sunny summer weekend all of these could be filled. For more solitude, you should push on - but make sure you get a backcountry permit from Olympic National Park (360) 565-3100) before you hit the trail. You will be crossing into the national park shortly. As you approach the west side of Lena Lake, the trail to Upper Lena Lake branches off. You can also proceed to the lake and catch a spur trail along Lena Creek that will lead to the trail. Conditions early in the season may be sketchy, with blowdowns to navigate, but most get logged out as the summer progresses. You will enter Olympic National Park at four miles and cross a creek at 5 miles (be careful during high water!). After this point the trail steepens and becomes rougher until at last you reach Upper Lena Lake. Heather and huckleberry dominate the vegetation and The Brothers dominate the horizon. Make sure you camp only in designated spots - this is a fragile environment!
Driving Directions:
From Hoodsport travel US 101 north for 14 miles. At milepost 318 turn left (west) onto Hamma Hamma River Road (Forest Road 25). Continue for 7.5 paved miles to the trailhead. Recent Trip Reports
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Upper Lena Lake
— Jan 05, 2013
— RonniefromWashington
Snowshoe/XC Ski
Issues:
Blowdowns | Snow on trail | Road to trailhead inaccessible
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Not much more luck with the jeep except that I was able to turn around easily and drive out forward....
Not much more luck with the jeep except that I was able to turn around easily and drive out forward. (which was nice.) Made it about a 1/4 mile from the first camp ground just past 5 miles up the hamma hamma rd. You would need a chainsaw and a buddy and two monster trucks to make it to the trail head. Or just some snow shoes or ski's like us! Good luck and hope this helps.
p.s. Don't take a two wheel drive vehicle unless you don't mind going in reverse for a couple miles. Day hike
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This is a beautiful hike with a relatively easy grade for most of the distance. The lunch rock at L...
This is a beautiful hike with a relatively easy grade for most of the distance. The lunch rock at Lena Lake is a good location for a break, and the campsite has a toilet if needed.
The trail gets steeper as you head to to Upper Lena Lake, especially towards the end, gaining 1500' in the last 1.25 miles. These rocks are slippery when damp, so we turned around a mile before the end - a bit before our planned turnaround time - to give ourselves a bit more time on the way down. Our disappointment at not making it to Upper Lena Lake was allayed by other hikers reporting that you could not see the lake anyway due to fog. We were grateful for the extra time when, on our way down, we encountered an intersection we didn't recall and that wasn't marked on our map. Following the lead of another hiker, we ended up taking the left intersection which took us to the Lena Lake campsite instead of to the junction we'd started at, taking us some extra time to get back to that original junction. Overnight
Features:
Fall foliage
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It's been 30 years since I have hiked (climbed) to Upper Lena Lake. I persuaded my bride to spend se...
It's been 30 years since I have hiked (climbed) to Upper Lena Lake. I persuaded my bride to spend several days of our honeymoon there. On the way down my new bride commented on how beautiful it was but will never, never forget how strenuous it was. I should have taken her to Hawaii. So my son, 24 years of age (I new better than to ask my wife) and I returned to Upper Lena. The hike to lower Lena is like a paved freeway, a great destination for young families and the next few miles to Upper Lena are quit pleasant. Then the last two miles are very strenuous! The rewards are great though, well worth the exertion and sweat. We timed our hike to coincide a moonless night so I could take picture of star trails over Mount Lena. We were blessed with great warm weather, cloudless days and night. We slept under the stair without the rainfly. An awesome couple of days!
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Ripe berries
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The start of the day was good a crisp end of summer day we began to hit the trail at 11:40 am starti...
The start of the day was good a crisp end of summer day we began to hit the trail at 11:40 am starting on a Sunday to skip the weekend crowed since this is a popular place on our way up we passed a lot of people coming out just as we planned the initial hike in took just about 2 hours not too bad, the trail was clear and easy to follow as soon as we hit Lena lake the camp spots were clearly marked but some had some trash in them some decided to keep on trekking till we found a small enough one for 2 so we decided to camp at the mouth of the creek from upper that feeds lower. The next day we hiked up to upper Lena lake all was well on that hike. Clear trail and cloudy day. Not bad all in all.
Overnight
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Blowdowns | Mudholes | Water on trail
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I did a solo overnight trip to Upper Lena Lake for the Perseid Meteor Shower. I heard the trail wa...
I did a solo overnight trip to Upper Lena Lake for the Perseid Meteor Shower. I heard the trail was beautiful, gradual at first with a high increase in elevation gain towards the end. Yup, accurate description.
The weather was clear, dry and hot. I left the trail head around 9:30. The first section of the hike to Lena Lake was in great condition. The trail was dry for the most part and well maintained. The grade was fairly simple, an easy steady elevation for most of the way. Small patches of huckleberries were along the lower section of the trail. Not enough to gather, but quite a treat to snack on. At the split the trail gets a bit more narrow and becomes muddy at first. The forest is beautiful in this area. Large cedars edge the trail and pockets of Devil's Club glow bright green in the sun. The trail becomes rocky with broken stone about the size of cobble. I didn't have any trouble hiking over it with a full pack. Take the trail slow and easy - I saw a few people with trekking poles to help with this section. I took a lunch break at the river crossing. A large log has steps carved into the trunk and makes for a simple crossing. The trail continues up and becomes a bit steeper after this point. You will slowly emerge from solid forest to an open and overgrown section of the trail. The trail is still bold and simple enough to find. You will get some great views of neighboring ridges. You pass through a grassy meadow which flattens the trail for a short period. After this point the trail gets quite steep, loose and sandy. I was able to dig my feet in and use a few branches to get up. Coming down was a little tricky but fine. Take it slow. You will be treated to a hillside blanketed in wildflowers at the top. Nearly all of the campsites were full. I was at campsite 5. Everyone I ran into came up as stargazers and were quite excited for the sun to go down. The meteor shower was beautiful. The sky was clear and the Milky Way itself was spectacular. The meteors started streaking around 10pm. I walked down to the lake and sat on the rocky spit attempting (without luck) to photograph one of the shooting stars. Oohhsss and ahhhahhs, yipps, yeahs, oh wows, and so cools could be heard coming from all corners of the lake as each camper threw wishes to the sky. So good. |
 Upper Lena Lake. Photo by bcmac.
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