Hiking Spruce Railroad Trail- Lake Crescent

It was a beautiful, cloudy, rainy, and cool day so oh course it was perfect weather to go hiking. The destination was visiting Lake Crescent for the first time and hiking the Spruce Railroad Trail. I have drove around this lake several times when traveling to other trails in the Olympic Peninsula. The Spruce Railroad Trail around Lake Crescent was a perfect hike for the overcast morning and afternoon in the Olympic National Park. The weekend we went was during the time Seattle and surrounding areas had high mud-slide alerts because the area had gotten so much rain, making the ground over-saturated with water.

Lake Crescent is the largest lake within the Olympic Mountains and is known for it's crystal-clear waters. In my opinion, there are spots of the lake that are definitely more "crystal-clear' than others, and then in certain spots (i.e. water under the bridge going over the Punchbowl) was a vibrant aquamarine blue color. This variation in the color was most likely due to the cloudy weather. Definitely the highlight of the hike was when we reached the Punchbowl.  During the entire trail, you are covered by moss-covered trees that you may forget that you are hiking Lake Crescent and not in the Hoh Rainforest. While hiking this trail, it really started raining. We definitely got wet and the trail got especially muddy. As we were finishing our hike a lot of people were just beginning their hike so I am sure they enjoyed some mud-sliding during their hike.

Even though we couldn't see the peaks of all the mountains surrounding Lake Crescent because of the overcast; the clouds provided majestic and eerie views during the hike. I would definitely love to go back to this trail on a clear day and hike one of the mountains to be able to see an aerial view of Lake Crescent.

Aerial view of bridge over Punchbowl of Lake Crescent

Bridge over the Punchbowl of Lake Crescent with mountains covered by clouds in the background.

Bridge over Punchbowl

Crystal-blue-clear water of Lake Crescent

The crystal-blue-clear water of Lake Crescent's Punchbowl

The crystal-blue-clear water of Lake Crescent's Punchbowl

The crystal-blue-clear water of Lake Crescent

Mount Storm King

Panoramic of Lake Crescent from the Spruce Railroad Trail

Mountains surrounding Lake Crescent

Mountains surrounding Lake Crescent

Muddy trail

The vast greenness that was present throughout the trail

Me standing in front of Mount Storm King

These trees were scattered throughout the trail. They were two-toned and waxy to the touch. Also another intriguing aspect was that moss did not grow on them. This particular tree was by the bridge.

There was two little waterfalls throughout the trail.