Our fourth and final toddler/grandparent-friendly hike of the Labor Day holiday. We were returning from La Push, and thought a hike to Sol Duc Falls would break up the long day nicely.

I know it was a holiday weekend, but WOW, this is a popular hike. You have backpackers accessing the High Divide, hikers headed to Deer Lake and hordes of folks walking just to the falls. The hike is actually much shorter than Craig Romano's guidebook and his Hiking Guide entry here at wta.org suggests. Few people that I saw had started their journey at the resort. Instead, they drove to the road's end and filled up the enormous parking lot (like we did). This makes the hike only about 1.6 miles roundtrip instead of more than 5 miles.

Since we had a 1 1/2 year old insisting to walk (instead of taking a ride on mama's back), we saw every hiker going up and coming down. Dozens and dozens of them. I was encouraged by the cultural diversity of my fellow hikers - different skin colors, different languages, young, old - all out enjoying this beautiful forest and falls.

Sol Duc Falls was nice. The water drops into a chasm far below. This could be dangerous, but the National Park Service has installed fences just about everywhere. We held our toddler's hand firmly, but never really worried that she would tumble over the edge.

We did a lovely loop around the Seven Lakes Basin. A wise friend chose to begin with the Deer Lake Trail in the hope that we would have a smooth gradually descending trail for tired legs at the finish.
The Deer Lake Trail climbs steadily and is fairly rocky at the beginning. Just after Deer Lake we continued climbing up the High Divide Trail. The wildflowers there are beautiful. Before the ridge the ground started shaking and then we heard hooves and a small herd of large elk came running out of the trees on the ridge. They stopped a few hundred feet from us, then saw us and took off again down the hill. We never found out what spooked them in the first place.
Continuing on the High Divide Trail toward Bogachiel Peak we saw a bear and several elk way way down the slope. The bear was staying away from the elk and the elk didn't seem too concerned.
Lunch was on Bogachiel Peak, with lovely views of the Seven Lakes Basin and surrounding peaks. After lunch we were on a quest to see Heart Lake. We ran along for some time and finally there it was. Just as we were descending toward the lake we saw another bear, this time much closer. He or she stayed mostly up the hill from the lake, rolling in the grass then continuing on his own path away from the lake again. There were several groups of people at the lake, which is indeed shaped like a Valentine heart.
Leaving Heart Lake we were on rocky trail again, but this time we passed through meadows and flowers and over small streams. We crossed Bridge Creek at the site of a broken bridge. Slippery rocks, but only one wet shoe out of six shoes total, so not too bad. From there we continued to the Sol Duck Trail and had some rocky trail, some smoother forest trail. The wise friend's guess was correct and we eventually had that gradually descending smooth trail for the end of the day run.

Started at 10am and took a few pics of the falls on the way up to Deer Lake. Lots of traffic there at the Falls, but pushed onward to Deer Lake. Beautiful trail and views of Canyon Creek ( i think?) Reached the lake and saw a deer feeding in a small meadow. Lots of fish jumping! i should have brought a pole even though they're pretty small. Fun to catch and release. All in all a great day hike. Also hit the Hoh Rain forest and Rialto Beach and Hurricane the next day. All were breath taking.

The weather was beautiful. Sunny and in the 70's. Trail conditions were good. No snow at Deer Lake. Bring mosqito spray and bug neting. Although if you found this hike in the Best Hikes with Children - Western Washington and the Cascades Volume 1 2nd Edition: Author Joan Burton - the hike is not easy for Children as noted in Hike #92. I would say this is a moderate hike for children 13 and under.

The first .9 mile is easy to the falls. Take a moment to hang out at the falls and enjoy the cool mist and noise of the falling water. the next 3.1 miles to Deer Lake is a steady grind up. The trail is rocky and requires little guys to step up a lot. I had a 9 and 11 year old on the hike and it was a tough hike for them. They were troopers though and we made it to the lake with no complaints.

The hike meanders up Canyon Creek, so you are always being serenaded by the sound of falling water. There are 2 camp sites located just off the trail on the way up to Deer Lake if you are hiking with little ones and get tired and dont want to push on to the lake, but I recommend pushing onto the lake.

The trail has ample places to stop for breaks when hiking with childdren. Two of my kids favorites were the log bench just before reaching the bridge at the upper falls and the switch back corner just after the butt tree. The trail switches back several times before you get to the lake. Just prior to getting to the lake the trail opens up and you can see the water. This was the best part to hear my boys yell out there is water ahead dad and the Oooo and the Aahhh as they saw the snow capped peaks at the far end of the lake.

We camped on the east side of the lake. There are several nice camp sites on this side and close to a running stream that lulls you to sleep at night. We had a deer walk through our camp site in the morning! I would suggest camping on the West side of the lake, so you get the nice morning sun to warm you up sooner (there are no fires allowed at the lake). If you are really lucky try to get the site at the south end of the lake. The site has a nice view of the snow capped mountains, over looks the lake, and has a nice shallow beach area for kids to wade in the frigid water.

The boys wanted to find snow after setting up camp, so we started to hike up to the 7 Lakes Basin. After 45 minutes of hiking my little adventurers realized they were tired and the snow was much higher than they had expected, so we turned around to have dinner. The boys explored the nearby Meadow Trail and skipped rocks in the lake and the stream.

We stayed one evening. This would make a great base camp with children for day hikes out of the area if you planned to stay multiple nights. The hike back was less strenuous, but my 9 year old took a few tumbles due to some of the larger steps for him to step down. He didn't get hurt. I just thinks he was in too much of a hurry to get back to the car.