My daughter and I enjoyed a delayed "birthday hike" we'd tried to coordinate in 2024 right before our trip to Iceland. Delayed again last week due to inclement weather. So glad to have a chance to share it with her before she goes back to university.
Road: If you’re pre-disposed to motion sickness you might want to pass on this hike. After US-2 you wind north on up-down, twisting and a sometimes bumpy road until the turnoff to a gravel road. I did this several years ago and swear the gravel part was way longer but I must have been headed somewhere else; fortunately, it’s only two miles. But have a sturdy vehicle and at the worst of the gravel (more like rocks – what are they DOING there??) go slowly (picture below). The dappling sun makes it harder to see the potholes.
Parking lot: NW Forest Pass is required. Forgot to check whether there was a kiosk at this trailhead (oops!) We arrived Friday morning at 9:15 to find 12 cars in the lot; about the same number when we left for the day around 5. The toilet smelled like ammonia and was out of TP; bring your own or go without. I pulled out my bug net to prevent mosquito bites as we got booted up, but didn’t use it at all on the trail. Probably just a residual morning thing – other than that, the only bugs we saw were beautiful dragonflies at Virgin Lake. We encountered about 25-30 people on the day, some coming in for weekend backpacking (one guy was even carrying an inflatable kayak!) but most just there for the day.
Trail conditions: decent, overall. We appreciated the trail work that’s been done the past 3 years going into the basin – those stair logs (we called them “stogs”) are steep but sturdy. We found only one area of a little mud, and one area where what we thought was rock was actually wood = slick. Beware several “ankle grabbers”, tangled tree roots in steep places where you have to be careful of foot placement so you don't twist an ankle. This trail is NOT for the faint of heart.
Berries: Abundant, all up and down the mountainside, but biggest and sweetest heading into the basin where the sun hits them. Delicious. We were out longer than intended and these sweet treats definitely helped fill the gap in our snacking.
Birds: we had 14 species on the day including a swift, red-tailed hawk, sooty grouse, and tons of red-breasted nuthatches and golden-crowned kinglets.
Non-birds: plenty of dogs, including several off leashes (not sure what the rules are at Blanca; we didn’t have our dog with us so I didn’t check). Tadpoles and frogs were fun to look for both at Virgin Lake and Blanca Lake. We also saw a snake.
Lake experience: I’d only done this trail once, four years ago, on a foggy, overcast day that didn’t give us any view until about 5 minutes before we reached the lake when we got a partial clearing. I hadn’t remembered as many logs along the shore; looking at pictures from then I can see we were decked in hats and rain gear so no need to wade. Friday, however, with a heat advisory in Seattle, it was a different story. My daughter and I found a way to cross some logs and dangle our feet but I smelled sulfur in the mud and wasn’t sure I wanted to go swimming. Others were more fearless.
Overall, the trail is lovely and quite a workout. We’re glad we had a chance to make up for missing last year’s visit.
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