Seven Lakes Basin, High Divide, Sol Duc River

We did the Seven Lakes/High Divide loop as described in the classic 100 Hikes book, starting and ending at Sol Duc and taking the loop clockwise.

Being that we aren't in top form and we haven't put a full pack on in a while, we broke the trip down into small chunks:
First night camp - Lower Bridge Creek.
Second night camp - Heart Lake.
Third night camp - Lunch Lake.

This allowed us time to poke around Cat Basin, go up Bogachiel Peak and relax at camp.

Doing this hike midweek, the trails weren't very crowded. The camps at Heart Lake and Lunch Lake were 100% full, but the lower camps like Sol Duc and Deer Park were nearly empty.

We saw a lot of rangers, park employees and volunteers doing trail work and checking on hikers. They are doing a great job. The trail was in amazing shape. The only trouble areas were from Deer Lake to Sol Duc Falls, where the trail is its most rugged - lots of rocks, big steps and water on the trail.

Blueberries are at their ripest right now, very late, and we also had a lot of lupine in bloom at the highest elevations.

With the berries ripe, we saw a ton of black bears - 8 or 9, three of them at close range. They are such beautiful creatures. We also saw one lone bull elk and heard there's a herd of 30 to 40 in the valley between Heart Lake and Seven Lakes Basin.

The only negative on the trip? Mosquitoes. We usually can avoid them by waiting until September for our backpacking trip, but this time we were swarmed at every camp in the upper elevations. We had DEET but I wish I had brought my head net.

Also - our views were affected by the Eastern Washington wildfire smoke, it was very hazy, especially to the south.

Overall this trip is unbelievable - the views from the High Divide extend from the Hoh River Valley floor to the top of Mt Olympus. It's hard to even describe the vastness. Looking at the Olympics from Seattle, it's comforting to know that a place so wild and natural is so near by.