Blue Lake Creek — Monday, Jun. 8, 2015

South Cascades > Dark Divide

We had the trail to ourselves on this warm Monday. Didn't get too hot, most of the trail stays in the shade. 2.5 steep miles in took about 2 hours with a lot of stops for pictures of the awesome columnar basalt wall. Some amazing volcanic features on this hike. Trail follows a creek most of the way with a lot of little waterfalls to look at. One wet, slippery crossing with a drop off was the only sketchy part of the trail. Blue lake was pretty, water was pretty chilly but on a hot day, a jump in would be great. A couple primitive camp sites right on the lake. An ATV path crosses the hiking trail .25 miles from the lake, so easy access to camping. So LOADS of tadpoles near the shore of the lake. A couple mosquitoes got me right at the lake but the rest of the hike was fine. Signed the registry when we got back to the trailhead. 1.7 mile road to trailhead one lane with a few large ruts. Low clearance vehicles might have a little trouble. Stopped to use the vault toilet at Blue Lake Campground just pass the road to the trailhead. Looked like a nicely maintained area.