Sol Duc River, Appleton Pass — Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

We hiked up to Oyster Lake, at Appleton Pass, starting from the Sol Duc trailhead. The Sol Duc River Trail is in great shape through the Appleton Pass Trail junction (and probably further, though we turned off there). Appleton Pass Trail from Sol Duc to Appleton is snow free until the potholes (around 4500 ft.). From there to the pass, we found patchy snow and a few longer snowy stretches (25 yards or so). The trail was clear, though, and no real route-finding skills were needed. Most of the campsites at Appleton Pass and Oyster Lake are melted out, though there's a fair amount of snow in between them.