Thomas, Blue and Tombstone Lakes, Bear Lake, Deep Lake & Junction Lake — Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

Did a slightly different trail than the one described here. Followed the Alltrails app trail named "Blue Lake, Elk Lake, and Deep Lake Loop" for 14.5 mi. Just copying the trip report for that here since it would cover much of the same area...

This is one of my favorite SW WA trails. I opted to day hike this trail and went clockwise since I got a late start. I wanted to get past the poorly marked/decommissioned trail going to Bear Lake first so I wouldn't hit it at sundown. Def keep an eye on the GPS. I didn't even notice the trail before I passed it. It really looks more like a deer track or old user trail than a still used footpath. This trail would be very wet in the rain or in spring/early summer - like walking in a creek or marsh... Much of it is entrenched in spots, brushy in others, or very faint while going through the numerous meadows. I saw only 2 other groups on it. If you do a lot of hiking it's not too hard to follow once you are on it, it's more finding the trail start on either end of the trail. For inexperienced hikers, you may struggle staying on the decommisioned trail without GPS. All the other trails in the loop are well signed and easy to follow. The colors of the foliage are stunning right now, there's still lots of berries to eat, and fungi to forage. This hike takes you past 20ish lakes/ponds. Highlights include: Bear Lake is a beautiful aquamarine shade, Deep Lake has nice views of Mt. Adams, and Blue Lake is a gorgeous deep blue at the base of a mountain. As a day hike, you'd have better lighting for pictures going counterclockwise, but clockwise gets more of the elevation out of the way earlier on into the day hike and gets you past the harder to navigate trail earlier on. All the steams shown on the map are dry - water is only available at the lakes. I think autumn is truly the best time to hike this - no mosquitoes, fall foliage, plenty of foraging, birds and frogs calling... Photos really don't do it justice - this place is very vibrant and full of life and color.

Lot full at 9:30am. Road passable in a Hyundai elantra sedan. If coming from the south def take the Meadow Creek rd to 6507. Because I had no signal and it was using the downloaded offline map, google maps had me take the 65 the entire way back and it was so long on a dirt road and there is a creek crossing (currently dry) that I wouldn't do in a sedan if there was water running it. The 6507 was a shorter and nicer road than the 65.