Hidden Lake Lookout

Mum, Jourdan and I set out fairly lake in the day for an 8 hour hike at 11:30am after driving 2.5hours from Seattle. It was about 75F when we started with the sun shining. We had a number of stops on the way up to catch our breath, the assent took 5 hours, the descent took 2 hours.

The trail through the forest was clear and dry, boardwalk in good repair. Trail through grasses narrow but dry and compacted. Trail up from the ridge where you can see the lake was narrow and required climbing over big rocks, quite manageable on the way up, need to be very careful of your footing climbing back down.

Up through the tall grasses and wild flowers was lovely, there were quite a few few hikers already coming back down. The change of landscape from forest to grasses to lower hardier mountain bushes to rocks keeps things interesting. As is the changing view as you traverse around the valley - don't forget to pause and look back.

It took longer than we anticipated to reach the ridge with the view of Hidden Lake - we had expected to have a late lunch there but it proved too far (took us 4 hours including lunch stop to reach the ridge) so we stopped earlier for lunch - with an alternate but no less awe inspiring view.

The ridge with the view of Hidden Lake is very close to the lookout which you can see when you come up over an earlier ridge. So don't expect to halve your climb by going to see the lake, having a food break, and then climbing up to the lookout.

The view at the top was well worth it.