Are you looking for a stellar backpacking trip in Olympic National Park? If so, consider backpacking the High Divide Trail (also known as the Seven Lakes Basin).
This hike had been on my list for awhile. As you might already know, I always love me a good loop trail, and this one checked all the boxes:
Before I dive into our hike experience, let me give you the basics.
High Divide TraIL / Seven Lakes Basin Loop Trail
Location: Olympic National Park, starting at the Sol Duc Trailhead
-Paved all the way to the trailhead. Large parking area. Yay for all you sedan drivers like me!
Distance: 19 miles round-trip (reports on the length vary slightly)
Elevation: About 3,500ft (lot of up and down)
Park Fees: Entry fee for vehicle + occupants is $30 purchased online or at the gate. Other options include presenting your Olympic Nat’l Park annual pass or the America the Beautiful pass.
Camping Fees: Check online for current campsite fees. Sites are $8 per person, per night. Ages 15 and under are free (yay for bringing kids!), as is anyone with an Olympic Nat’l Park annual pass. There is also a $6 fee to make the reservation.
Permits: The camp sites do require permits. About 50% or reserved for walk-ups. The rest can be obtained online. Try to book as early as possible to get your preferred spot (permits usually open up around April). Otherwise take your chances with walk-up and see what you get!
Visit recreation.gov for online Olympic Nat’l Park permits. Search for sites under the “Sol Duc” tab.
For walk-up permits, visit one of the Wilderness Information Centers.
Best time to go: Like most Washington hikes, mid-July thru mid-October are your best bets weather-wise. Check online for updates on the latest conditions in the park.
What to bring:
Bear Vault/Canister: Olympic National Park REQUIRES bear canisters for all your food. I know, they are annoying and cumbersome, but they are necessary to keep people and bears living in harmony. Don’t forget they also make a great spot to sit or place to set your jet-boil on, so there’s that.
Rain gear: Be aware that this part of the state is known for rain at any time of year. I highly recommend always packing your tent rain tarp, even if it’s 90 degrees out, a waterproof rain jacket, AND a waterproof pack cover. I’ve lived in this state my whole life, and well, you just never know.
A trowel: Not all sites on this loop have a backcountry toilet. The sites with vault toilets include Sol Duc Park, Lunch Lake, Heart Lake, and Deer Lake.
Where can you camp on the High Divide Trail / Seven Lakes Basin?
When doing my research, I actually found it rather difficult to find a list of all the camps and in what order they fell. Even the map below skips over a few. So, here are the campsites, going clockwise from the Sol Duc Trailhead:
- Sol Duc Falls
- Sol Duck River (#1, #2, #3, #4) – all single sites along the trail
- Appleton Junction
- Seven Mile Group Camp
- Rocky Creek
- Upper Sol Duc Bridge/Crossing
- Lower Bridge Creek
- Sol Duc Park
- Heart Lake
- Lunch Lake
- Deer Lake
- Canyon Creek (#1, #2, #3)
- Mink Lake
Camps with a group site: Seven Mile camp, Sol Duc Park and Deer Lake
Camps with backcountry toilet: Sol Duc Park, Heart Lake, Lunch Lake, Deer Lake
Our Experience on the High Divide Trail
So besides being a loop trail, why did we choose the High Divide Trail? Well, it appeared to have sufficient distance, decent elevation gain, killer views, and potential wildlife viewings. Maybe, just maybe, I’d see a bear?
I’ve had this page of my Olympic National Park trail guidebook bookmarked for two years now. Yeah, been thinking about this one for awhile. Why did it take us so long?
The sad thing is that being in Seattle, we just don’t get over to the Peninsula as much as we should. The Olympics seem SO far away. It’s a good 2 1/2 hour drive … and that’s on a good day. Throw a few vacation drivers in there along with single lane roads, and well, you know, it’s something you gotta plan for.
I know, I know …. leave early you say. Look, unless it’s an airline flight, my family is not getting up early. They just aren’t. So let’s not go there.
Another deterrent was the perceived time this hike would take. Before hiking the Wonderland trail, a 20-mile loop seemed like a 2-3 day endeavor. But after the Wonderland trail, well, I figured the High Divide Trail could easily be a one-nighter. I just needed to find the right window. The summer was slipping away.
Then one Friday in mid October, the stars aligned. I had the day off. Theron had no school and no Saturday soccer game. The temps were still warm. Smoke was wafting into Seattle, but we paid no heed and wagered a bet with the weather. And, most importantly, we snagged a permit.
*Note: Permits for this trail tend to book out months in advance. I think we got lucky because A. we only needed one night, B. I wasn’t really picky which camp we got, and C. The smoke forecast probably caused more than a few unhappy campers to cancel their trip.
Thankfully I was able to get Theron up a tad early and we hit the 7:40am ferry, Fauntleroy to Southworth.
From there we made our way up to highway 3, then over to 101, through Port Angeles, and into Olympic National Park.
As we drove, the smoke was very present. EVEN in Port Angeles you could see it slowly blowing in, everything appearing like you were looking through an old screen door. I still hoped for the best, but given our experience with Lake George just a few weeks prior, I was pretty nervous.
Eventually we arrived at the park, flashed our America the Beautiful Pass, and we were in!
As we drove in, I kid you not, the smoke quickly receded. The skies revealed their brilliant blue colors, and my stress wafted away with the smoke. I think we were going to be ok.
Even with our “early” start, we didn’t hit the trail until almost noon. See what I mean about getting over to the peninsula. But that was ok. Our camp, Lower Bridge Creek, was only about 6-7 miles in. Super easy.
I wished we had found a spot just a bit further, but alas, this was the closest to mid-way I could get. We were lucky to even get a permit at all for the High Divide Trail. Thanks smoke!
Going clockwise, you will pass quite a few cozy camps tucked into the woods. Sol Duc River camps, Appleton Junction, Rocky Creek … all super woodsy and cute. Be aware this section of the hike is mostly forested. I’m glad we picked this portion for the first day. The real views were coming tomorrow.
By 4pm we hit our camp, Lower Bridge Creek camp. There are two sites here, nicely spaced and fairly private. While other sites further along the trail are arguably more beautiful, as we would confirm the next day, these are very lovely. I highly recommend.
The first site is on the same side of the bridge when you arrive and right next to the water. The second one is just up the trail a bit further after you cross over the bridge. After surveying both, we opted for the one further up. It felt a bit more open and had impressive views of the surrounding mountains. You really can’t go wrong either way.
That night we had the whole area to ourselves. Save a few hikers wandering by later in the evening, and a few with headlamps trudging by even later, we were the only ones there.
We hiked around some of the social trails, spent some time at the creek, and made a delicious dinner of Cuban beans and rice. Highly recommend this one!
The next morning started off a little chilly (it is October in Seattle, after all), but once the sun rose the day was GLORIOUS. No smoke, blue skies, fresh air.
We made hearty bowls of oatmeal and headed out for our day to complete the loop. “Only” a 13 mile trek with the full day ahead of us. Never would I have thought those words would come out of my my mouth. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.
We quickly left the woods behind. The trail and the skies opened up … and it was glorious. I just kept telling Theron how lucky we were. He probably got sick of it. 🙂
The Fall colors were just incredible. We really lucked out with this weather so late in the season.
As we hiked along we came upon Sol Duc Park camp, which looked heavenly. If you can snag a permit here I would do so. Same with Heart Lake, the next camp we wandered past. The outhouse perched up on the hill was a real, albeit smelly, treat.
Honestly, the trail kept getting more and more beautiful. What a day, am I right? Don’t forget, Seattle was covered in smoke. We were so thankful to be out where those airborne particles had not yet reached.
Not too far past Heart Lake you will find a side trail up to Bogachiel Peak. Bring a map along so you don’t miss it. We chose not to do any side trips this go round, but that just makes sure we left some fun for next time. 😉
Another very popular side trip, or campsite, is Lunch Lake. There were lots of groups here who dropped their packs and headed up. While I would have loved to, we still had a long day ahead of us, plus a 2+ hour drive home. Next time, and ideally with a permit to camp. Many claim this is one of the best camping spots on the trail.
Past Lunch Lake the views just kept getting better. Little Miss “she who never sees wildlife” (that’s me) did encounter a buck on the trail. We and another party had to stay put for some time as said buck confidently parked himself right in the middle of trail with zero intention of moving aside.
Countless conversations were had about maybe, possibly, cutting the trail to get around this magnificent but horned creature (I know, bad bad bad), but thankfully we did not have to resort to such maneuvers. Finally Mr. Buck saw fonder food up above and hippity hopped himself far, far away.
As we kept plodding along, the views continued to astound, but you could finally see the smoke was poking its way into our little corner of the park.
Eventually we came around to Deer Lake, only 4 miles from completing our loop. As you can see on the map there are quite a few camp spots here, so keep this one on your list if you want a short but beautiful trip in Olympic National Park. There are quite a few additional trails connected to the lake as well, so you can spend considerable time doing some day trips or wandering about.
The outhouse here is a beauty as well. Theron had to “use” the bathroom, if you know what I mean, so I spent more than few minutes exploring the nearby camp and adjacent river.
Further along we came across them most spectatular sight I’ve even seen in the forest. I dubbed it, wait for it, the Booty Tree. I mean c’mon.
For the record, I’m not the only one who stopped and photographed this fine behind.
Finally, we could start to tell we were nearing the end of our journey as the crowds started to pick up with young families and day hikers, all enjoying the falls and the Sol Duc area. Our High Divide Trail trip was coming to an end.
And then just like that, we were done. Two days, 18 or 19 miles (trip reports vary, I didn’t track it myself) and all in all, a gorgeous time away from the city and the smoke. We lucked out big time. We will be back for this one again I’m sure. See ya out there.
Oh, did I see a bear? A big fat nope. 🙁
