11 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
We took our friend who just moved to Seattle on a day trip up to the Eastern Olympics and hiked the Tunnel Creek trail. We have never been to the Olympics yet and since snow advisories were in the weekend forecast for all the cascades, we figured it was the best bet for the least amount of snow. All I can say...such a pretty hike! We did hit snow starting a bit past the Tunnel Creek shelter and the further up the trail we got, the more fresh snow we ran into. We stopped our hike almost at the 5050 ridge mostly because the snow was starting to get deeper and slippery. The snow was fresh powder and our micro-spikes weren't of much use so we called it a day. We passed by a couple of frozen bodies of water, Harrison lake and another I called, "On Frozen Pond". The only creatures we came across were a couple of deer on the road and some "snow squirrels" as our friend calls them. I had a fabulous day, it was so fun to see and watch our friend, who is from Hawaii, experience snow, frozen lakes, and the general beauty of the Pacific Northwest for the first time. It really makes you appreciate just how lucky we are to live where we do and to have all this at our doorsteps!
