High Divide - Seven Lakes Basin Loop — Friday, Aug. 11, 2017

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

Our trip was for 2 nights, 1st night at Deer Lake and 2nd night at Sol Duc Park. 4 mile hike into Deer lake wasn't bad, only took a few hours with stops. We've camped on the right side of the lake before where its pretty open, but this time we went left over the bridge to the other campsites and found one up about 150 feet from the lake. Quite the climb up and no view really. But definitely deer country. Saw a few baby deer and momma. Bugs were bad here. We wore our head nets for the first time. Although while eating I kept forgetting I was wearing one. :) oops. There's a great creek that runs into the lake were you turn off the trailhead to head to the campsites to filter water. Also a toilet here. Had a lazy morning and left camp about 10am. Climbing up to the high divide was a good climb but came with amazing views. Wild Flowers like crazy, views forever, and we even saw 7 goats right on the trail. Even some grouse on the way up. We took a side trail to look at the basin and lunch lake. We actually dropped our packs and took the trail to a view point instead of dropping the 400 feet down to the lakes. Beautiful view. Got back on the trail and headed up the divide. There's a great spot to stop and eat after the Bogaciel view trail. We then headed the rest of the way up and down to heart lake and down into Sol Duc Park. Arrived around 5:30pm. Long 7 miles of elevation gain and loss with lots of breaks. We filtered some water at heart lake because we were pretty low. There's also a toilet here. Headed down the mile to sol duc park and ran into the ranger that was staying here. Checked out permit, which I love when they do. We took the site by the ranger station near the meadow of wild flowers. If you are coming down the trail its to your right. Bugs weren't too bad this night. The river is here so great for water. Got out of camp the next morning around 9 and worked our way down the 8 miles to the trailhead. Long hike out, but pretty mellow. Highlight of the trip is we had amazing views because the smoke had lifted AND we saw a bear! Right off the trail coming out of sol duc park. He looked at us but went about his business. So awesome!