Trails for everyone, forever

Home Go Hiking Trip Reports High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop, Mink Lake, Deer Lake

Trip Report

High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop, Mink Lake & Deer Lake — Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

My friends and I backpacked the Seven Lakes Basin and High Divide as a 4 day 3 night trip. We decided to go to Mink Lake and skipped Lunch lake.


Day 1: TH to Sol Duc Crossing
The trail is well marked. We passed through some lush forest. There is a nice waterfall near the campsite. My Garmin recorded 6.21 miles and 1,627 feet of elevation gain.

Day 2: Sol Duc Crossing to Potholes
After breakfast, we started our hike at 9am. This was a longest day with the most elevation . The highlight was Heart Lake. It was surprising many hikers dint know the name or why it was called Heart Lake :)
We got a clear view at that time of our hike. As we got to the High Divide, it was completely socked in, just got a few views here and there. We reached our campsite by 445pm. We had some trouble finding a decent campsite here. The signage for the campsite isn't very clear. The five of us were crammed in our tents in one small area. There is running water near the campsite. It began raining by the time we set up our tents . We had an early dinner and got cozy in our tents. My Garmin recorded 9.06 miles and 2,822 feet of elevation gain.

Day 3: Potholes to Deer Lake -> Mink Lake
The trail is pretty straightforward. There were a few blowdowns. Most were easy to cross but there is one with all its branches that was posing a problem. We were getting stuck with our huge backpacks. We noticed people were walking around it but please be cautious as there's a huge drop. This part of the hike had huge drops throughout. The bushes are overgrown and we had to do some bushwacking. We met a Ranger just as we reached Mink Lake. She quickly checked our permits and asked for anything she needed to be aware of on the trail. We told her about that one big blowdown and she said she would try to trim some of it on her way up. Extremely grateful to the Rangers for what they do. We noticed tiny froglets that might have just hatched jumping on the trail near the lake. We were cautious not to step on them. The lake was beautiful. My friend had her fishing pole and decided to go fishing. We were happy it wasn't raining. The campsites are great here and very spacious. There's a sheltered area near the campsite and the ranger told us that it was for emergencies. There is running water next to the sheltered area. My Garmin recorded 7.22 miles and 1,270 feet of elevation gain.

Day 4: Mink Lake back to the trailhead
After 3 days of hauling our heavy packs, this was the day we were eagerly looking forward to. Lots of downhill :) This was also the most sun we had seen during our 4 day hike. We passed the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. We couldn't locate the trail back to the trailhead. We walked by the roadside for a good 1.5 mile and were delighted to see our cars :) My Garmin recorded 5.31 miles and 322 feet of elevation gain.

What a fantastic trip. We got to see some deer, grouse and her babies, chipmunk, Bald Eagles, Golden marmots, tiny froglets and a heron.

The entire trail is full of blueberries and huckleberries. We stopped every now and then to snack on them. They are so delicious. We also tried some salmon berries , they were sour. Lots of wildflowers on our way to the Potholes campsite.

Bugs were non-existent. Just a few at the Mink Lake campsite. We never used our bug spray, what a relief!

My garmin recorded a total of 28 miles and 6,041 feet of elevation gain.

Mink Lake
Heart Lake
Did you find this trip report helpful?

Comments

Posted by:


chitin on Aug 22, 2025 08:57 AM

HikesByJB on High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop, Mink Lake, Deer Lake

You're welcome. I hope you can explore this beautiful trail soon.

Posted by:


HikesByJB on Aug 22, 2025 12:47 PM