My husband and I did a three night backpacking loop through the High Divide-Seven Lakes Basin. You don't necessarily need that much time but we just wanted to take our time and enjoy this stunning area. Each day brought a different element of beauty.
Day/Night 1: Left Sol Duc trail head around 1:00 pm. Parking lot was full but most were just visiting the falls so people were leaving frequently. We hiked counterclockwise so our first night was Deer Lake. We had the best camp spot on the south side of the lake, just across the foot bridge. It is up on a bluff that overlooks the lake on one side and a beautiful hillside and meadow on the other. Deer were always around!
Day/Night 2: This was my favorite hiking day. The scenery just kept changing. Hiked out of deer lake through meadows of wild flowers and more small lakes before starting to climb up the high divide trail. Lots of trees, wild flowers, bear grass, deer and eventually you come to a bolder field. We made our way through this and up over the ridge to get our first glimpse of the seven lakes basin. It was stunning. We enjoyed a long lunch at Lunch lake with no one else around. We then took the unmaintained, mirror lake trail back up to the high divide. This trail seemed to be in a completely different world. Tons of blue tarns, but very open, dry and rocky mixed with patches of wildflowers along the shores of each lake. Upon reaching the High divide trail, you are immediately awarded views of Mount Olympus - wow! We continued on past heart lake and camped at Sol Duc Park at a site just next to a small water fall and the creek below.
Day/Night 3: This was our short hike day and we had permits for Sol Duc River #1 (there are 4 and each is only one campsite). I was a little worried that the tent site was just off the trail but it turned out amazing - no one is out there and only a few hikers passed us that whole day. We were nestled in a massive grove of huckleberry bushes taller than us, bursting with berries. In the early evening a male deer decided to visit us after getting a drink from the stream nearby.
Day 4 - we hiked out really early because the plan was always to soak in the hot springs that morning. Great way to end the hike - the hot springs is very quiet at 8am.
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