Lake 22 — Tuesday, Jun. 22, 2021

I don't usually hike short, or highly populated hikes, but I'm glad I made an exception on this day. I arrived at 1:00 pm, which, combined with it being a weekday mitigated the crowdedness, and I was really impressed with the experience of this trail from start to finish. The forest is almost entirely old growth... cedars, mostly. Gnarled, beautiful and huge, and this results in an openness at the floor of the forest due to the  mature canopy shutting out  much of the light. It's a casual and consistent grade mostly comprised of log and aggregate steps with a couple of rock sections thrown in for interest. I wore barefoot style trail runners and didn't get sore feet, but I was careful to avoid the sharp stuff. It's not hard. At the top you're rewarded with quite a spectacular lake, a nice boardwalk most of the way around it, then a short trail section with some rocks at the far end, and lots of great places to picnic. I found an awesome sunny rock and dozed off after a refreshing swim and yummy lunch. The cliffs are gorgeous to gaze at while you're relaxing and keep a constant tune with myriad waterfalls cascading from great heights. Delicious water by the way. If you need a quick mountain fix or have friends/guests/visiting family that's not up to something as epic as Hidden Lake Lookout, for example... but that's the kind of stuff you like. Try this one on a weekday.