Spruce Rail Trail

About eight years ago my husband and I drove past Lake Crescent on our way to a family reunion. Something about it grabbed me and I promised myself that I'd come back some day. I honestly didn't think it would take so long but I finally made it back! With a forecast of two days of good weather, I packed up my backpack, made a ferry reservation, and headed west.

The ferry pulls in to Coupeville

 

Spruce Rail Trail Trailhead

Lake Crescent is a glacial lake ringed by steep mountains. Along one side runs a 4 mile rail trail. I expected the views to be mostly peek a boo views through the trees and although the first and fourth miles were like that, the water front views during miles two and three were stellar. The trail was in great shape after the first rather muddy mile, with only one blow down that was easily traversed. 

Lots of little water streams

Mount Storm King across the lake

A beautiful bridge

snow capped mountains ring the lake

I paused along the way to peek into a couple tunnels, but kept clear of entering, having been warned on various websites that they were unstable. Oddly, there were no warning signs of any kind on the actual trail. This trail could have used a few historical interpretive signs, too.

an old tunnel

tunnel shaft looks kinda sketchy

Lake Crescent is not a peaceful lake. The water surged restlessly whenever I stepped near it and it felt like it was hungrily hoping for a misstep so that it could grab me by the ankles and plunge me to a watery doom. An ancient Indian legend says that the lake was formed when a god got fed up with the warring by enemy tribes and threw down a mountain top,  killing all the warriors and damming up the lake.

the only piece of rail I encountered

taking a break and airing out the feet

log to the lake

the lake laps hungrily

It took me about four hours to do the round trip. Towards the end an additional 2.5 paved section connects to Hwy 101. I hiked along that for awhile before I finally pulled out my map and realized I wasn't interested in doing that part and turned around. Round trip mileage for me was probably about 9 miles.