Olympic Hot Springs

To start off the month of December, 5 of us hiked to Olympic Hot Springs. We thought the hike was going to be about 5.5 miles, but the road was gated off about 3 miles lower than we had anticipated, so it became a bit longer than we had planned. Snow began to fall as we hiked in. By the time we got to camp, it was coming down very hard. We set up our tents on the snow, then walked to the uppermost pool of the hot springs. I have no idea how long we soaked, but it was for hours. As we sat in the pool, it POURED snow. Every once in awhile, a glory hole in the clouds would open up and we could see stars. Then, the snow would start again. We soaked, we ate, we drank.

Finally, we extricated ourselves from the wamth and headed back down the hill to the tents. Wow, we had gotten a ton of snow. At this point, more than a foot had fallen since we started. Throughout the night, snow continued to fall. By morning, we had accumulations of between 18 and 24 inches of fresh snow, and the snow continued.

The hike out was something else. We alternated breaking trail with out one pair of snowshoes. About 1.5 miles into our hike out, the snow switched over to rain. The trail got harder to break and we got quieter. After about 4.5 hours of hiking, we finally made it to the cars. All of us were soaked, but we still had a great time. And, due to the bad weather, we were the only people at the hot springs that weekend!