Silver Lakes
Silver Lakes Way Trail - 3.0 miles, 1500' elevation gain - level of difficulty moderate-
"We found the trailhead easily--there's no trail sign, but it's obvious at the place where the road crosses the creek and turns right. There was one other car at trailhead. Once you're on the trail you shortly come to a trail register and sign that says that it is an unmaintained trail--I was surprised to see the register. It's not an easy trail--it must have been an old fisherman's path up the creek. Parts of it are very steep, rocky and slippery where there are roots. It took us a long time because of the difficult footing to get up to the junction with the Silver Lake trail and I don't really know the distance, therefore. We got to the lake in two hours, but the length might only be three miles altogether. The lake was beautiful and absolutely clear. We saw one tent on the far side. After eating lunch we decided to climb the ridge directly South of the lake. We found a rough path that goes steeply up and found ourselves at the top with a glorious view down to the lake and on the other side down to the Big Quilcene and marvelous views of Mt. Constance. That would have been reward enough for the day but we didn't want to stop and continued along the ridge to the left (east) and up to a higher peak. The views got better. At that peak we met the people who had the other car at the trailhead and they urged us to go on another five minutes to get a 360 degree view. We persevered and went up to the peak to the southeast a short distance. And it was amazing! It was the best view I've seen in the Olympics. Mt Rainier, Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Puget Sound, Seattle and the surrounding Olympic peaks in perfect clarity. A rare experience--and one in complete solitude. We added about 500 feet of elevation from the lake. Our return was a bit faster. We made it back to the car from the lake in one hour and forty minutes."
