Our main purpose today was a day hike to Lena Lake, but we were also wanting to check conditions of The Brothers Trail and whether crossing the creek was possible.

The Lena Lake hike was a nice, early season hike. No snow. I'd forgotten how rocky the lower part was. We arrived at 9am and there were 8 or so cars parked at the trailhead. We passed 2 groups going up, and saw a group of 4-5  had camped overnight at the lake.

We continued past the campsites to the far end of the lake where Lena Creek empties into the lake. Continuing to the Brothers trail was obviously not happening for us. The area where the trail is marked with flags is treacherous. If you want to head upstream and scoot across logs 10-20 feet above the creek, it's probably doable with a bit of bushwhacking on the other side to rejoin the trail. We ate lunch and decided that we'd head out to the Upper Lena Lake Trail instead, just to see how far we could get.

Snow was expected. There were some minor snow patches on the trail to Upper Lena in the section we hiked. I did posthole once on a patch. The trail itself was littered with branches and blowdowns. We navigated a few. Stopped our hike about 200 feet short of the Olympic National Park boundary, as the cluster of (4-5) blowdowns screamed Type III Fun.

The Upper Lena Lake Trail is kind of a mess right now. Lots of downed branches. The show patches should melt out soon, but the cluster of blow downs just outside the park boundary would be extremely difficult to navigate. We knew it would be impassible, but just wanted to see how far we could get.

Hiking down, we passed many hikers heading up. We were done and heading home before 1:30.

The road up and the trail are both in great shape. The water level at the lake is full and all the streams are raging. Wildflowers are blooming: Calypso Orchid, Avalanche Lilies & Trillium. There was a light rain on and off which created such a refreshing and typical PNW vibe.  The trail is a delight and quite beautiful. If you go in Spring or Fall, you can avoid the summer crowds and have a wonderful experience there. The birdsong is melodic. The old-growth forest is magical. Check out my YouTube video for current conditions and sights you'll see on this adventure:  https://youtu.be/fpOYpWYcTH8

Please leave no trace. Happy Trails!

If you read Craig Romano’s (2007) trail report (Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula) on Lena Lake, you might be deterred to try it out. He mentions crowd, lots of trash, ding-a-ling switchback cutters, and neophyte hikers. Despite his description of this very popular hike, my husband and I were not deterred. Yesterday, we decided to give it a try. We are so glad we did. We arrived at the TH around 9:38am and only a few cars were parked in the lot. The wonderfully paved road made it so not onerous to get to. The easy grade trail (1300 gain over 3.2 miles) made for a pleasant, not too huffy puffy hike. The dapple-lit trail was lovely as were the views of Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson. About 2 miles into the hike, the trail was wet due to underground streams. It was not much of a problem. Encouraged by Romano’s suggestion to continue along the lake for a bit where we would find a nice lunch spot, we forged ahead. However, we never made it to Romano’s nice lunch spot due to the lack of a way to cross the roaring creek. We turned around, retracing our steps and found a lovely spot along the lake where we plopped our selves down to eat some lunch. The breeze, birds, emerald green lake, and pussy willows all combined to make for a lovely lunch spot.

If you want to do this hike, my recommendation is to give it a try in early Spring or late Fall. Hiking the trail at these times of the year will help you avoid the neophyte-trash-dropping, switchback-cutting hoards that Romano talks about.

I was the third car in the lot at 7:40am. Trail was busy for a random weekday in April, would hate to see it during peak season!! 😳 Passed about 25-30 folks but was alone for the first hour+. Lots of water on trail near the lake, barely any snow no need for microspikes unless you plan on continuing to the upper lake. 

• Mileage 9.5
• Time 3 hrs 40 min 
• Elevation 1298 (-1230)

Beautiful spring hike to Lena Lake. The lower third of the hike, the trail was pretty dry. The second two thirds were wet with running water, stream crossings, and slushy snow. Micro-spikes were not needed today. Spring flowers are starting to bloom with trillium and wood violets out. Trout lilies will be blooming soon!