Spent this weekend hiking to a place called Hidden Lake and I had no clue what to expect.
In order to get to the hike from Seattle we woke up at 4:00 am and drove two and a half hours and through 4 miles of gravel, pot hole riddled road. There was a moment where our cars almost got stuck because a couple of holes were big enough that tires weren't touching the ground but with a careful positioning of the tires and a little extra weight courtesy of two more passengers we managed to triumph over the hole. Parking at the trailhead was pretty tight, but luckily we got there early and snagged two prime spots near the trail.
The start of the hike was pretty normal and we hiked through the forest for about a mile before reaching a clearing in the canyon. We then started to hike up through the canyon crevice where there was a small river and a lot of waist high plants and flowers. If you looked back during the hike you could see down the whole canyon crevice which made for amazing views. Once we got to the top of the ridge, we expected to see the lake but there was another ridge just past it.
After that ridge, we found out that the lake was huge and actually a significant hike down the other side. While on top of that ridge, we decided to instead head up a short but steep path to the lookout tower and relax there. After that, we trekked down back to our cars and arrived back home around 7pm.