16.38 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
We really enjoyed this hike. The first 5 miles is along or near the Sol Duc River in beautiful forest. We saw a lot of backpackers coming out from camping along the High Divide loop, which is also a great hike (we day hiked it a few years ago). At 5 miles, we reached the Appleton Pass trail junction, and once on that trail, we only saw one other set of hikers. Within a mile or so of the pass, the forest starts to open up more, with some small meadow type areas. We continued beyond the pass, on the boot trail to Oyster Lake, and a bit beyond Appleton Camp. The views were best beyond the pass. The huckleberry leaves were still around for the most part, but we missed the prime color by a couple weeks. We did not have enough time that day to continue on the way trail any further- we will be back some day to do the traverse through Spread Eagle Pass to connect to the High Divide.
