Running The High Divide Trail in Olympic National Park

Adventure

Sep 9

This is one of those runs that you dream about as a trail runner. Alpine meadows, mountain views, waterfalls, alpine lakes, and smooth forest trails, and super runnable ridges! Holy cow what an adventure!

Now, this is not the original High Divide Loop that you’ll find on alltrails, or hikingproject. My friend and I decided to add on a bit extra and extended the loop by adding on Appleton Pass to Swimming Bear Lake. I highly recommend you do this as well. We had no clue what to expect, but were not disappointed in the least.

Starting our run at 4am from the Sol Duc Falls trailhead we headed clockwise on the High Divide Loop. The first 5 miles were surprisingly runnable in the dark. With a few ups and downs, you will eventually reach the junction that will take you up to Appleton pass.

We made a left and started the longest climb we would have for the day. roughly 2,000ft of climbing over 2.5 miles. We quite a bit of smoke in the air from the fires up in BC and the North Cascades, the sunrise was just a beautiful soft light as we crested the top of the pass.

From this point you have gained the ridge, and over the next 7-8 miles, you’ll be smiling ear to ear!

From Appleton Pass, you head right and climb a bit more to Spread Eagle Pass

Heading through the meadows to Spread Eagle Pass

The climb going up to Spread Eagle is much scarier looking than what it really was. The views are amazing!

Looking back to where we started from that morning. Appleton Pass up on the right.

The next landmark you’ll eventually get to is Swimming Bear Lake. A pristine alpine lake nestled on the side of the ridge below High Divide Sol Duc Park. Getting there might be my favorite section of this trail.

I’ll just let the photos speak as to why..

Swimming Bear Lake is a great spot for a snack, refill water, and soak in the morning sun. We chatted with a few hikers before rolling out towards Heart Lake.

We began to see more and more people on the trail because we connected back with the usual High Divide Loop Trail.

We stayed up on the ridge looking down at Heart Lake as we passed

Ok, this would be THE BEST spot to propose!

We still had a little bit of climbing left as we reached the Seven Lakes area and climbed Bogachiel Peak. This would be the last major climb before we begin our descent back down into the forest and to Sol Duc.