High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop — Saturday, Jul. 12, 2025

Last Saturday I checked another item off my bucket list: The High Divide Loop. This trail has been on my list of "must do" hikes for a couple of years, and became a priority after chatting with two wonderful hiking friends last year - Lance and Kelsie, both of whom really know their way around the Olympic Peninsula.

So after a rather meager five hours of sleep the night prior, I arrived at the Sol Duc Falls Trailhead at 3:30 AM (sadly, a half hour later than I had wanted to). Headlamp in place, I managed around seven miles in three hours (didn't help my timing that I took a wrong turn, which added 1.5 miles to my day... grr.) Sunrise had been at 5:30 AM, but when I reached the first open meadows an hour later, the height of the surrounding mountains and a bit of cloud meant that I was actually right on time for those first rays of light.
 
Highlights and random thoughts below, because otherwise this will get entirely too wordy:
- I stopped to make an adjustment to my pack while it was still dark out and just happened to catch sight of a little duck in the moss (a "sole duck" at Sol Duc?)
- the only thing worse than being exceptionally sweaty while hiking is being the first hiker on a trail for that day and catching every single spider web with your sweaty face
- the first few meadows were filled with pink mountain heather - gorgeous!
- after sunrise in the meadows, I climbed briefly into the bit of cloud that was left, to find carpets of avalanche lilies - and as the cloud burned off I was lucky enough to catch crepuscular rays in the forest
- I "side quested" a few places: Lunch Lake, Round Lake, a bit past Lunch Lake to catch a glimpse of Clear Lake, Bogachiel Peak plus the main trail and saddle below it, and far enough down the trail to Hoh Lake to make a few photos that overlooked it
- the side trail up to Bogachiel is much easier/safer from the east than from the west
- there were only three areas of snow to walk through, and hiking boots sufficed each time (very very minimal snow each time)
- climbing back out of the basin after visiting Lunch Lake is no fun when you've just filtered water and your pack weighs five extra pounds!
- I met the nicest people! I kept running into the same pair of people five times, and each time we had a brief, lovely conversation. And while filtering water at Heart Lake, a ranger stopped to do the same thing and we chatted for a bit.
- the bugs were real! My clothes are treated with Insect Shield, which helps a lot, and I sprayed any exposed skin around three times that day. I came home with only two bites, in the end. The bugs were better on the eastern side of the loop.
- I apparently forgot to take any photos of Mount Olympus. Huh.
- the last 5-6 miles, as nice as the scenery was, were rather torturous for my feet and legs
- All Trails listed the loop (with Hoh Lake) included as 21.5 miles. I didn't go all the way down to Hoh, but I did take a wrong turn that added 1.5 miles, and side-quested a number of places. My All Trails app had me at 26 miles by the end of the day but it always overestimates. However, my Garmin In Reach had me at 25.4 miles... so it must have been somewhere around that?
- All Trails really over-recorded elevation. After looking at other sources and adding in side quests, I think I did about 5600 ft. All Trails app said 6,800... SO strange. It did that for my Spray Park Loop last year, too. Seems to only happen when the hikes are loooong.
- on a very somber note, as I reconnected with the main trail at Sol Duc, I witnessed a Search & Rescue crew transporting a body bag on a wheeled stretcher back to the trail head, where a coroner's truck was waiting. I can only assume they had been able to finally recover the body of the teenager who fell to his death last month. As beautiful as these places are, they must be respected at all times.