On Saturday night I drove to the trailhead/Hoh River Visitors Center and slept in my Outback in the parking lot.  Sunday morning I ran/hiked to just past Elk Lake and back on the Hoh River Trail.  I was initially planning on going all the way to Glacier Meadows/Blue Glacier, but the snow became impassable about a quarter mile after Elk Lake.  The snow cover began very subtly about a half mile past the High Hoh bridge, so about mile 13.7 or so.  And then it steadily increased going uphill towards Elk Lake.  Snow and ice were actually falling as they melted and fell off the trees (it was a beautiful sunny day).  Glad I had my hat and sunglasses just for protection from the quarter sized ice falling.  The half mile or so before getting to Elk Lake was post holing territory.  I tried to be careful and mostly stepped on solid snow, avoiding the postholes left by a couple who had gone out to Elk Lake earlier (I saw them on their return on my way there).  But the postholes would leave me up to my hips in snow.  I carried my microspikes with me, but never felt the need to put them on.  Poles were helpful though to test out the snow and avoid post holing as much as possible.  There are a couple stream crossings in the snow section.  Going past Elk Lake a bit, the trail was completely unbroken snow.  I was breaking in trail in knee high snow, postholing more than hip deep, with snow above my head on either side of the trail.  So I decided to turn around for safety.  The couple I had passed on the way had said they spoke to a ranger who cautioned about avalanche danger in the avalanche chute between Elk Lake and Glacier Meadows.  

Back to the lowland portion of Hoh River Trail - its in pretty rough shape in terms of many blowdowns to navigate around or over, many mud bogs and standing pools of water to navigate around or through, and more thickets of roots and rocks to navigate carefully over than I remember from my previous traverse of this trail 10 or 11 years ago.  There are a number of stream crossings, but with one exception, I was able to find a log to cross on or step through on rocks without getting wet.  The one exception, I'm guessing around mile 7 or 8, I couldn't find a good crossing and just waded through.  On my first crossing of it I only went in calf deep, but on the return crossing in the afternoon, I went in thigh deep because I wasn't as careful in choosing a shallow path since I knew I was getting wet.  

Wildlife spottings:  Startled one elk who fortunately bounded into the forest downhill rather than running towards me.  Saw what I think was a wolverine about 100 feet ahead on the trail.  Smaller than a bear, the color of a grizzly, had a bear like gait rather than feline, but had a tail.  You hear and feel the woodpeckers as they make the forest shake with their reverb pounding on the trees.  

Looks like some trail work is being set up, with boards and metal rails being situated in a few places, I'm guessing to make new bridges across streams or over some of the mudbogs/water pools.  

The restrooms at the Visitors Center are super clean and well stocked.  The water fountains there are not in service, or out of order.  Bring a water filter, there's plenty of water from stream crossings along the trail.  Lots of waterfalls and massive redwoods and ferns and moss.  

Hiked on 3/5/21 - 3/7/21

TL;DR - made it to Elk Lake in DEEP snow for the last 2 miles (miles 13-15). 30 miles covered in 3 days. Super pretty trail. Highly recommend.

My buddy and I hiked this knowing that there was a slim chance we’d actually make it to the glacier, but it was one of the only hikes of this distance that seemed backpackable this time of year without doing full-on snow camping. The trip was not what we expected it to be, but ended up being amazing.

The trail is gorgeous and other-worldly. So many ferns, mushrooms, waterfalls, and obviously everything is covered in moss. I liked that the trail was close to the river for most of the hike. Plenty of water crossings to fill up your bottle, and the glacial water tastes amazing. There are some dicey crossings, but no actual fording required if you’re willing to be creative. If you are planning to just plow through the water, the deepest crossing is at mile 8 (we took a log instead). Decent amount of trees down, but again, nothing impassable. The trickiest one was at mile 7.2. 

We had to make the drive from Portland, so we didn’t hit the trail until around 2pm on Friday afternoon. Wanted to make it at least to Lewis Meadow, so we had to hike in the dark for a little bit. Made it there around 7:30pm. Lewis Meadow is great and we had the area all to ourselves, but the river isn’t necessarily close, which was a small bummer. Woke up to a light dusting of snow. Decided to leave camp set up and do just a day hike on Saturday. Got a late start and hit the trail around 9am. Incline starts to pick up around 12ish miles (the AllTrails mileage was not super accurate compared to the mile markers on the trail or my GPS watch). High Hoh Bridge was definitely a highlight. Didn’t realize just how high it really is! Holy cow!

Started seeing real snow on the ground right after High Hoh Bridge and it just got deeper and deeper until we ultimately turned around at Elk Lake. Regretted not bringing snowshoes, because we were post-holing at Elk Lake and it was almost waist-deep. We were on the fence between bringing crampons or snowshoes for the hike, and obviously we made the wrong decision. 

Made it back to Lewis Meadow about an hour before sunset. Woke up to a couple inches of snow on Sunday morning. Packed up real fast and made it back to the car around 2pm. Hiked the last 8 miles with some friends we met on the trail - shoutout to Serena & Kai-Rey! The trail was MUCH muddier on the way back than it was on the way in. I guess the combination of rain + weekend day-hikers contributed to that.

I’m into birding, and we saw a Pileated Woodpecker, some American Dippers (so fun to watch), and tons of American Robins and Varied Thrushes. Ring-necked Ducks and Gray Jays at the trailhead. Can’t wait to come back in the summer to see the glacier!

I went as far as Lewis Meadow Campground over the course of a couple of days. The trail is muddy and flooding in places but nothing your waterproof boots, gaiters and poles can't handle. The middle of the trail is often much more firm than it looks, so checking the firmness with a pole will often help avoid unnecessary tromping on the vegetation. 

As far as stream crossings go, theres a few small ones you'll have to carefully cross by carefully stepping on small logs and rocks. The poles really help with those. There's a stream crossing around trail mile 8 that's on a single log and was a little frosty for me, but should be fine if you take your time. About half a mile later (just before Olympus Guard station) there's a log jam crossing that you'll need to scramble across - again just take your time and check to make sure the steps are solid before you make them. There's a multiple-choice steam crossing around trail mile 10 (just past the turnoff to the Hoh Lake trail) - the large spruce tree on the left worked for me there once I scrambled up it's roots. 

I saw some mountain lion, coyote, and elk tracks along the trail, and coyote tracks in the campgrounds but not the critters themselves, so be aware that they're around and plan accordingly. 

I attempted running to Blue Glacier but had to turn around after 17 miles, a mile out from it, due to trail conditions. The trail leading up to Elk Lake is overall in good shape. There are sections completely flooded with a few going up to the shins and knees. Wearing trailrunning shoes, they were no problem to move through. There are a few faster flowing streams but I didn't need poles to ford. There were around 6 blowdowns with a major one before getting to Elk Lake that required climbing over and balancing across its branches. 

Past Elk Lake is when the snow starts and the trail conditions escalate quickly. Snowfields quickly appeared where I had to use the "light as a feather" mantra to walk across to minimize postholing (I'm 150 pounds if you're more into science than woo-woo). The second creek that feeds into Elk Lake is a steep climb down and out of it in deep snow. After that creek there were a few sections where snow was waist high that I had to crawl across. There are 2 sections of the trail covered with snow drifts along steep slopes that required kicking steps into in order to traverse. I turned around at the first chute (picture below) which is very steep and icy with rocks barreling down it. There would have been another chute to cross before getting to the ladder at the washout and then Glacier Meadows.

In the racing world, a DNF is designated when you do not finish a race. As I took the last steps on this trail, I was grateful to have not finished it so that I could come back again another day when it's safer.

A midweek fall hike up to Blue Glacier. I took my time and did it in four days. After the first three miles, I had the river valley almost entirely to myself until the last night.

 It the rained heavily my first day, and all the stream crossings were very high. There are logs you can use for the crossings, some easier to use than others. At around mile 14, a little before Martin creek, there is a mule carcass right by the trail a bear has been snacking on. He growled at me and ran off, but ran further down the trail and I had to spend about ten minutes screaming at him before he finally took off for good. On the day back I just made lots of noise and did not see him, so just be aware.

There was no snow on the trail up to Blue Glacier, although there was a very pretty dusting on the mountain tops. I hiked it in the morning after camping at Elk Lake the night before, and there was frost on the ground, slippery rocks, and the ladder down the wash out was frozen and very slick. I managed to see the glacier on a mostly sunny day, and it’s stunning. There’s something to be said for having to work hard for your alpine views!

It’s a nice time to be in the woods if you don’t mind the rain. The bigleaf maples have all lost their leaves, leaving a nice red blanket over the ground, and there’s a ton of interesting mushrooms!