Dungeness River #833.2,Royal Creek #832,Royal Basin #97

I led a Cascadian backpack to Royal Basin July 23-27. We drove from Yakima on 7/23 & camped in the Dungeness Forks Campground. This is a very nice 10-site campground, but it does not have potable water. Fri was sunny & warm as we hiked up the Dungeness River & Royal Creek through beautiful forest. The trail is in great shape top to bottom. We arrived at Royal Lake mid-afternoon & found most of the campsites already full. We had to settle for a very small one near Shelter Rock (most of the sites seem quite small). Our 3 tents were cheek-to-jowl & if we had had another tent I don't know what we would have done. The bugs were fairly bad at the lake. On Sat morning we took our camp to the upper basin. We had a lot of nice clouds in the afternoon (much better than boring blue to this photographer’s eye) & by evening the fog rolled up the valley & swirled around the peaks. Very beautiful. Sun was much like Sat afternoon with lots of sun & interesting clouds. We explored most of the basin, but I apparently did not climb high enough to find Flett’s Violet as I had when I was here in ’91. The fog rolled in by mid afternoon on this day & we were treated to another show of clouds swirling around the peaks, though by late evening the fog settled in for good. Mon dawned clear. As we had a long journey home, we packed up early & headed out. We saw lots of deer & marmots, but no goats as I had seen in ’91. The backcountry ranger told us they were dying out in the park. The flowers were wonderful throughout and the scenery & weather was spectacular. A great trip!