Lower Lena Lake

For nearly a year we've been talking about the Lena Lake trail, both of us having read about it on different websites, books, etc.   Yesterday we finally hiked it and it was awesome. The Lena Lake trailhead is just southwest of Quilcene in The Brothers area of the Olympic Mountains. The 8 mile road into the trail head is a nice, paved entry which goes past Hamma Hamma campground.  The distance to Lena Lake is just over 3 miles with an elevation climb of 1300 ft.  It is said to be one of the most popular trails in the Olympics and even though we tried to time our adventure with the exodus on Memorial Day,  we still saw at least 20 other hikers, including several families with kids.

The 3+ mile climb to Lena is full of switchbacks, making for a steady elevation gain.  We climbed for about 2.5 hours of heart pumping fun.  The beginning of the trail is quite rocky, but eventually it smooths out to hard packed dirt and is well maintained. Along the way you start to hear the roar of the rapids, but they stay hidden for most of the trip.  There are a couple dry river beds where the stream now runs subterranean.

Eventually there are a few peak-a-view glimpses of the river, and a bridge that crosses:

The farther you go, the bigger the trees get and there are some amazing rock formations. Once you reach the top and see a sneak peek of the lake, you know the climb was worth it.  We stopped at "lunch rock" and had a snack and enjoyed the incredible view:

I don't know if the photo really captures the amazing dark teal color of the lake.  It is beautiful!

There are primitive campgrounds surrounding the lake and a composting toilet.  This, combined with the popularity of the destination means there are quite a few signs of human abuse of the area.  We tried to look past all of that and enjoy the amazing scenery.  From here,  the trail continues in two directions: either The Brothers summit or Upper Lake Lena,  both of which are huge elevation gains. Our plan is to one day hike up to Lower Lena, camp overnight, continue to Upper Lena where there are fewer travelers and fewer accommodations and camp overnight, and then make our way down.  It would be a huge challenge for us at this stage - but it's on our list!

Overall this hike took us about 5.5 hours, which included some time exploring around the lake and checking out the campgrounds. It was definitely a fun adventure, a great workout and a worthwhile trip.