Marmot Pass, Home Lake — Friday, Jul. 3, 2009

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

We decided to use the long July 4th weekend to head out to the Olympic Penninsula from Seattle and do some hiking / camping. We started on Friday on the Big Quilcine River trail, headed up towards Marmot pass. The road to the trail head was in great shape, perfect for our low-clearance car. The parking lot at the trailhead was packed, but there was plenty of space to squeeze in along the side of the road (remember to bring your NW forest pass!). We arrived a bit late (after 2 pm) and hiked straight to Camp Mystery, which is about 4.5 miles up the trail. The trail was in great shape with a forgiving incline. Great flowers and views once you break out of the trees. Camp Mystery was crowded, but we still managed to snag a nice campsite next to the trail / river. The next day we picked up our camp and made the short hike to Marmot pass. From there we took the trail to the south (left) which brought us up onto a large grassy plateu. We set up our tent and stashed our gear there while we used the rest of the day to explore. After going back down to Marmot pass, we took the trail that continued onto the west side of the pass and headed south. After maybe 20 minutes of downhill walking, this brought up to a small creek where the trail split. Some folks we met told us that if we crossed the creek the trail would continue across relatively flat ground to Home Lake. Since we didn't want to head too far downhill (for fear of the uphill hike we'd have at the end of the day to get back to Marmot pass), we decided to venture to Home Lake. From Marmot Pass to Home Lake is (a total guess) about 5 miles? The trail was pretty flat and in great shape. A few stream crossings as well as a single snow patch, but neither were big problems. Home Lake was beautiful and if we had brought towels...probably swimable. The hike back up to Marmot pass was a little tiring, especially since we weren't used to doing the uphill hiking at the END of the day! That night we camped on the high plateau just south of Marmot pass. We were treated to an amazing sunset, 4th of July fireworks (we could just barely see them in the Puget sound area to the east), and a mountain goat...who decided he liked the taste of the bushes next to our tent. The only bad part about this campsite was that we had to bring water up from Camp Mystery (or we could have melted snow from the small snow patch up there). Besides that, it was much nicer than our previous campsite and well worth the short hill-climb to get there. Sunday was our final day, so we packed up our camp and made the quick scramble up Buckhorn Mountain to the north of Marmot pass (at least that's what I assume it was!). The hike up is short. We took our time and didn't take more than 2 hours round-trip. Well worth it though, the views up there are incredible. After that we hiked back down the Big Quilcine River trail to our car and headed home. All-in-all it was a fantastic trip. All the roads and trails are in perfect condition. The bugs were out, but weren't too bad with a little bug spray. There are a few snow patches here and there but nothing that causes problems. There are tons of great campsites and views, I'd highly recommend this hike as an over-nighter.