Hoh River Trail to Blue Glacier — Friday, Jun. 18, 2021

Beautiful weekend for a 2-night backpacking trip.  Hiked to Elk Camp where we camped for 2 nights.  The trail to Elk Camp is mostly flat (or rolling) until the very end where there is quite some elevation gain; a good work out before dinner.  The trail was beautiful, large trees, many wildflowers and the first ripe salmonberries.  Several log crossings, each a bit different than the other which made it fun.  While the map shows the lake at Elk Camp, camping is not close to the lake and the water source near the emergency cabin is a very small trickle.  However, hiking up on the route towards Glacier Meadow, there are better streams not far from camp.  The group camp holds 4 to 5 tents at most.  There are bear wires in camp for the ursacks (not..bear canister and backpack!).

We hiked up to Glacier Meadows and the Blue Glacier viewpoint the next day.  A beautiful ~6m RT hike with increasing elevation gain and mountain views.  There is plenty of water all the way up to the 2nd snowfield.  There was one sketchy snowbank early on which we did not cross and on our return it had caved in (instead we crossed 100 ft above the trail).  The highlight of the trip was the ladder at the washed out section.  The section is steep and bare with sand and lose rocks but do-able.  What makes it hard are the missing steps in about 3 places.  Near the bottom there are no steps and no more rope.  It's a very steep section of sand and scree and a trekking pole helps to get down.  Later, we figured that we could have transitioned to the purple rope which goes into a different direction.  Once on the bottom, you hike up on the snowfield until you see the trail.  Some cut through the brush to meet the trail. Going up was much faster and easier and quite fun.  One at the time because of falling rocks. 

At Glacier Meadows camp there were still many (and sketchy) snowbanks.  We mostly followed the boot path or made new trail depending on the condition of the snow.  There are two snowfields to cross to get to the viewpoint.  At the viewpoint, beautiful lilac heather and a great view of the indeed "blue" glacier.  A great place to have lunch and watch for small dots (climbers) coming down across the way.  We glissaded down the 2 snowfields which was super fun and fast. 

There are a few fallen trees on the trail to Glacier Meadows, a few small and one large tree... (10T 448160 5300182 and 448155 5300196).

Overall a memorable backpacking trip in a beautiful forest, along the river and then reaching the Blue Glacier viewpoint.  Micro spikes and trekking poles highly recommended.