Hopefully, you’re enjoying coming along with me through my adventures completing the 52 Hike Challenge. I’ve got many more of my hiking diary entries to share with you so that’s for reading so far. For this blog post I’ll be giving you the rundown on the Green Lake Trail and providing you with a few tips to help you be a bit more successful in completing the trail should you attempt it. I’ll try to keep it simple though so you can spend more time enjoying the trail and the photos I took along the way.
If you’ve missed any, you can always search 52 Hike Challenge in the search bar of my website or just click on the tags at the bottom of this post to be shown all of my other hiking-related. As always, please leave a comment if you have questions about hiking or gear or trails. I’d be more than happy to get you the answer.
What is this hike about?
You should know by now that I almost always reference the great resource, The Washington Trails Association, for information regarding hikes in the Pacific Northwest. It’s an amazing website that keeps the public up to date on trail closures, avalanche risks, and trip reports from other local hikers of conditions at and on the trails. It’s very important to do your research before you head out on trails. It can make a substantial difference especially if there are inherent risks. Plus, trust me…you don’t want to drive 3 hours to the trailhead for it to turn out to be closed due to bears, avalanches, or something else.
This hike is an almost 10-mile roundtrip journey through the lush evergreen forest near Mount Rainier National Park. There is about 1500 ft in elevation gain total and the highest point is 3270 ft. It’s actually on the extreme upper Northwest edge of the park near the Carbon River.
How did it go?
Getting to the Green Lake trailhead is relatively easy. You will travel through the cities of Buckley then Wilkeson and then on to Carbonado in Washington State. Once you’re out of Carbonado, you just continue on Highway 165 until you reach a fork in the road. Go to the left! If you go to the right then you’ll be going towards Mowich Lake, Eunice Lake, and the Tolmie Peak trail. The Tolmie Peak trail is pretty awesome anyway so neither of those is a bad option just in case you recognize you took the wrong road. If you really want to do the Green Lake Trail, just turn around and make sure you take the correct turn.
FYI: Wilkeson is one of the last places to get gas! So fill up while you can.
If you took the left at the fork then you’ll be on Fairfax Forest Reserve Rd. This road is a little rough at points but it’s only a few miles on this road before you reach the trailhead parking lot.
The parking area is easy to get to. I got there at 9 A.M. and there were only 4 spots left out of about 13-14 spots. If you need to use the restroom, they have vault toilets which were clean and surprisingly smelled great.
If you go during the warmer months, the trees provide great cover from the sun as the canopy is relatively tightly knit. This is great because it keeps the walking area quite cool. It was already warm at 9 A.M. as the sun peeked through the limbs of the trees.
The first three miles are on a paved service road. The road is closed to general vehicle traffic so don’t worry. This paved road is a great warm-up but lacks variance. It might be tough if you have fallen arches or issues walking on flat surfaces for the three miles.
Once you get closer to the start of the actual Green Lake Trail, the Carbon River kind of greets you and welcomes you to the start of the trail.
You will also know when you have arrived at the actual trailhead because there is a sign. From the sign, the hike is another 1.8 miles to the lake. There is a stop-off/fork in the road about a mile in where you can go to Ranger Falls.
What I liked about this trail is that the switchbacks are odd like there wasn’t really a strategy to them. It’s not the typical back and forth. It’s kind of all over the place and I liked that, so you don’t get bored. Switchbacks are what it’s called when the trail winds back and forth like a snake. Switchbacks are usually there to assist with elevation gain, but can sometimes be tiring.
You’ll know you’re close to the lake as the trail goes up pretty sharply and then declines steeply.
Now, the lake…was beautiful. Simply beautiful. Super clear, still, emerald water. Hardly any fish stirring. Plenty of chipmunks though. The bees were slightly annoying though and won’t leave you alone.
I spent about an hour at the lake just sitting in the shade and enjoying the color of the water. The name of this trail is true to its name though. It certainly is a Green Lake Trail.
Anything I should know before going?
There is nothing to note before going other than what I’ve already mentioned. Wilkeson is the last place to get gas before the trail.
I would suggest a decent insect repellant. I tried to walk around the perimeter of the lake but the mosquitoes started to really come for me. As you may know from my previous posts, I swear by Badger Balm. It’s organic and made from natural ingredients. They even have one product that includes sunscreen and is anti-bug.
Regarding water, I think I went through about one and a half liters of water. That was because it was pretty warm on the day I went. It’s important to stay hydrated. So, please bring a water bladder or a reusable bottle so you don’t leave plastic bottles and trash behind. Green Lake is one lake where I didn’t see a large amount of trash around the perimeter. I don’t think a lot of people visit this trail which makes the journey to the lake even better.
As with any hike in this area, there is a risk of encounters with black bears and cougars so know what you need to do in the event you encounter them.
You also need a National Park Pass to park in the parking lot. I’ve talked about the different park passes before and honestly, the price of the annual national park pass is well worth it if you visit a lot of national parks. If not, just get a daily pass. Having the right kind of pass can be confusing sometimes so if you don’t venture into the outdoors much and this is your first time, just leave me a comment with your questions.
Again, if you enjoyed reading about my hike to the Green Lake and would like to see my other adventures, you can check them out under the Adventure category of this website.
I want to again urge you to check the Washington Trails Association page before you venture out as conditions change and so does the trail as nature always finds its way. Thanks for getting this far and please reach out if you have any questions.
