Lovely 4 night backpack from 9/10 PM to 9/14 AM with pairs of 65 year old and 33 year old legs. Glorious weather with limited nighttime drizzle at times, and a welcome rain on the final night and hike out to enjoy the “rain”forest. No large mammal sightings though we witnessed a probable mountain beaver, frogs/toads, grouse, salamander/newt,  random small scat, distant tree fall and elk bugle. Rare blue berries though many more ripe ones past Glacier Meadows.  Trail use relatively minimal, and one of us enjoyed the ladder climbs  and trek to the lateral moraine of the glacier  all by themself. Outbound past the Guard Station there is a double water crossing over an apparent fork not noted on Gaia that can be crossed via a log or log jam, or take a wet crossing either  barefoot or with water shoes.  Bear hang cables at Happy 4, and Elk Lake in need of repair. Priveys clean and airy- nice design though BYO.  Great moments and company in the woods that exceeded my expectations. 

2.5 day backpack to Blue Glacier: day 1 TH to Glacier Meadows; day 2 up to the glacier then down to Olympus Guard Station; day 3 back to the TH.

Trail in excellent condition the whole way, though I think my soul briefly left my body on that }*#%{{ ladder. Ladder was largely intact with a few broken rungs, but intrinsically scary AF. Bear wires were reported to be out of service at Mt Tom Creek and Martin Creek. They were usable and in good condition at both our sites. Privies at our sites were all clean and in good shape. There was water at Glacier Meadows in the stream but not running much; mostly 6-8” pools. Plenty of water elsewhere on the trail. Some of the Glacier Meadows tent sites have dead trees and we avoided tenting in those.

Looked like Elk Lake was the campsite of choice for folks visiting the glacier; we couldn’t permit it on a Monday night. There were about 4 small groups camping at Glacier Meadows. If you can get there by evening it’s a great and very easy jumping-off point for seeing the glacier the next morning (but does require taking the ladder both ways with a pack).

Loads of ripe blueberries and some huckleberries on the way up to the glacier. In terms of wildlife, we saw a ruffed grouse and tiny toads but not the elk — just their scat on the gravel bar at OGS. A couple at our site saw a black bear. The ranger warned us about recent cougar sightings but we didn’t see it (though maybe it saw us).

Gorgeous challenging hike. It would be great to figure out how to make the ladder safer, but despite it, we had a blast.

Trail in excellent condition up to the ladder before glacier meadows campground. The glacier meadows CG had no easy access to running water for filtering and was not occupied when we went through. Took the trail to the lateral view of the glacier and it was stunning, highly recommend! 

All camps were pretty clean and well-signed. Some privy facilities were...better than others. Come prepared to pack out or LNT your toilet supplies. 

Overall great trail and great people on the trail. Saw the elk at Lewis meadows and at 5 Mile Island camps but little else for wildlife. 

#hikeathon

Day 1 - Hoh River trailhead to Olympus Guard Station (9.1 miles)

Day 2 - Camp at Martin Creek (~mile 14.7) (~5.6 miles) (we planned to day hike to Glacier Meadows this day but were too tired)

Day 3 - Day hike to Blue Glacier (but we stopped at the rope ladder) (~4.6 round trip), then hike down to Happy Four (mile 5.7) (9 miles, 13.6 total)

Day 4 - Hike out from Happy Four (5.7 miles)

This was a last-minute trip for us so we did the planning quickly and were really grateful we were able to get permits with like 24 hours' notice. Huge thanks to WTA for being such a good resource! I hiked this with my partner; we're both in our 30s, in decent shape but not hiking regularly.

I had read that Lewis Meadow - Blue Glacier day hike was really challenging so (in addition to be limited by which permits were available) we decided to backpack up to Martin Creek and then day hike to Blue Glacier. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this itinerary; if we do it again, I'd probably try out camping at Lewis Meadow and doing the long day hike rather than packing up the steep slope.

Day 1 - The path was pretty flat, smooth, and this part was easier than expected. There was a 1.5 hour line to get into the park and so we didn't get on the trail until 1pm or so. (Take seriously the suggestion on the website to arrive before 10am!) It took us about 5 hours to hike the 9 miles to Olympus Guard station. We camped on the gravel bar and it was super gorgeous.

Day 2 - After Lewis Meadow, the trail started going up steeply! Although the mileage wasn't super long, we found packing up to Martin Creek quite challenging and weren't up for the additional day hike, which made Day 3 an epic day. Martin Creek has some nice camps up along the creek and only one permit per night, which meant it was sweet and quiet. Nice swimming holes to dip in. Someone had left toilet paper around which we picked up.

Day 3 - We woke up at 5:30am and day hiked with small packs 2 miles up to the rope ladder, but found it a little scary and so we turned around there. Nonetheless there were great views of Mount Olympus. We then backpacked down from Martin Creek to Happy Four which made it a very long day - we got to camp around 8pm.

Day 4 - The hike out was pretty flat and easy, took us about 4 hours at a leisurely pace. There are nice swimming spots/river access along the way. 

The thimbleberries, huckleberries, and blueberries were amazing; dipping in the river and creeks was awesome. I hadn't hiked in the Olympic National Park for years and I appreciated the permit system: that there were last-minute permits available and that it limited the number of folks in the wilderness while creating lots of access. It still felt like lots of people compared to more remote places I've backpacked, but I really appreciate the ways the park is balancing access and maintaining wilderness. People were very friendly and helpful on the trail (although I wish someone had told us about the rope ladder, as we were surprised.) We had a great trip and I'd highly recommend this for experienced backpackers!

For reference - here's some of the mileages (listed on the sign at the start of the trail):

Tom Creek 2.9

Happy Four Shelter 5.7

Olympus Guard 9.1

Elk Lake 15.1

Glacier Meadows 17.3

Length: 5 days, 4 nights

Party Size: 10

Weather: Sunny mid-high 70s for the first two and a half days, Cloudy 60s-70s the last two.

Campsites: Lewis Meadows, Glacier Meadows (2 nights), Olympic Guard Station

Day 1: Arrived at the gate about 5 minutes before 9 am and the line was fast (<10 cars in front). Flat hike out to Lewis Meadows. Pretty smooth but took our large party about 5-6 hours with a lot of stops. Only annoyance were these biting flies swarming us near the first stream crossing while we changed shoes.

Lewis Meadows campground was nice, only a few small issues- compost toilet was out of order, bear wire had already been used up (thankfully we had a rope with us), and the crows are pretty food aggressive.

Day 2: Broke camp pretty late around 10-11am to begin the steady hike up to Glacier Meadows. The first hour is flat and GORGEOUS, maybe my favorite part of the forest portion. The following elevation gain was physically tough for half our group but everyone managed.

We stopped for a break and water refill at Martin Creek which was incredibly beautiful. I could have stayed there all day.

The ladder with a pack is not as scary as many reports here may lead you to believe. For context I’m a small female (5’2, 125lbs) and it was passable with a ~37lb pack (I know that’s too heavy lol). The other portion going up is also challenging with the rock scree and I was glad to have gloves.

Glacier Meadows was lovely, two open toilets, some deer, and plenty of bear wire. I also welcomed the chillier temps.

Day 3: Somewhat of a rest day, we hiked the rest of the way up to Blue Glacier to the lateral moraine which is mostly a rock scramble/talus field. The view is absolutely worth it. Make sure to bring sunscreen or some type of sun protective clothing for the exposure.  

Day 4: Hiked back out and down to Olympic Guard station. This felt very fast and we were all glad to have lighter packs and cloud cover. It was also nice to have time to appreciate portions where I was too winded to look up the previous day. OGS campground was great, we camped by the river and enjoyed some amazing views for our last night.

Day 5: Easy 9 mile flat hike out, took us about 4 hours and thankfully there were no biting flies at the stream crossing this time. We think they prefer sunnier temps. 

Overall 10/10 experience, highly recommend. Could definitely be done in less nights but I’m glad we had more time to take it in. Our group is not very experienced and we had a few first timers but everyone loved it.