Came here after attempting to do Aurora Ridge (Sol Duc road closed right at the beginning) and Klosche Nanitch (road closed) and I'm glad I did.
This was a lovely trail to do on a rainy day (turned into a rainy day—started dry) with very little snow.
Snow started about 3/4mi from the top, it was passable with microspikes but because there’s not really a view at the top and I wasn’t feeling it I just turned around there.
There is a lot of micro-fauna to look at: mushrooms, salal on the side of the trail, varying mosses, and some cool rock piles that were not glacial erratics—part of the topography of the area? They get exposed in certain points along the trail which is cool.
It is very rocky for a not-much-traveled trail, similar to Deer Lake but not as bad since there’s less foot traffic. The trail is narrow and there is a brief washout section that has been worked on by trail crews at the beginning that makes the trail look harder than it is. Finding the trailhead is the hardest part: it is to the left of Aurora Creek directly across from the little pullout that Google Maps (if you still use Google Maps) tells you to park at.
The trail starts alongside the creek then pulls away and comes back a few times. At one point there is a lovely waterfall-ish area with good views (through the trees) of the creek—this is a good turn-around point if you don’t want to go all the way. It’s about halfway.
The trail doesn’t offer much in the way of big views, nothing instagrammable, but it does offer Lake Crescent peeks (first to the left, then to the right) as the trail goes along which is cool. I didn’t notice the steepness too much on the way up (first hike in a while energy) but I did on the way down. It was steep! The rain started as soon as I decided to turn around and went from drizzle to deluge fairly quick. I knew it was going to rain from the weather report but you get lulled into a sense of complacency when you start out on a dry trail.
Overall I really enjoyed this hike. There are a lot of cool things to see—mushrooms, small plants, all a bit dazed from the snow but still pretty, and the area doesn’t get much traffic since it doesn’t offer much in the way of the macro.
Will be back again!
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