OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Nearly everyone living on the north side of the park makes their way along the mostly paved route to Olympic Hot Springs and Boulder Creek at least once.
But head beyond the creek to its source, Boulder Lake, more than 2,000 feet above the hot springs, for a truly fine, forested lake experience.
Make sure your muscles are up for it.
Boulder Lake can be reached two ways from Elwha River Road, which winds above Lake Mills beyond the Elwha Ranger Station west of Port Angeles.
The shorter, and by most depictions easier, route begins at the end of the road on the Olympic Hot Springs Trail and climbs about 6 miles to the lake.
An alternate route for more ambitious hikers is via the Happy Lake Ridge Trail, a 10-mile trek that begins at the Boulder Creek section of Elwha River Road.
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The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News.