Talapus and Olallie Lakes — Tuesday, Jul. 29, 2025

My dog and I did an overnight hike on Tuesday. Upon arriving at Olallie, the first toilet sign can be seen to the left just after passing the Day Use area. Continue along the main trail and there are several camping spots to your right (we picked one of these), some with space for one tent, some with space for 2-3 tents. After passing several spots there is one more toilet sign to your left, before the trail hugs the curve of the lake to your right, and there are a few more camping spots at the end of the lake. Most of the campsites have convenient lake access. We arrived at the lake at 11:30am on a Tuesday and I'd say less than half the spots were taken at that time. Still plenty to choose from, but they did mostly (not completely) fill up by around 4-5pm.

Bugs weren't too bad, mainly just flies that buzzed around and sometimes landed. I only noticed mosquitoes in the early morning, and even then it was only a few. I never actually used my bug spray.

Wildlife: The fish started jumping like crazy around 6:45pm. If you want to catch your dinner I think you would have good luck. I heard an owl calling "who who" from far away at around 9:45pm. Then at 4:30am another owl was making a different call from much closer by. It sounded more like a pigeon except lower pitch? Definitely sounded like a very large owl. I should've recorded the sound but I didn't think to do that until later.

Overall a great overnight! Highly recommended for anyone looking for an easy trek up, low exertion but high reward.