Talapus and Olallie Lakes

Talapus and Olallie Lakes are two of my favorites lakes to hike to in early summer, mostly because they are at lower elevations and can be hiked to while the upper elevations are still covered in snow. I swear I have done this hike 4 times in the last 3 years because I love it so much! Olallie is also one of the few lakes that I will actually swim in, which I did last year after a scorcher of a hike to Island Lake on a really hot day. Swimming in Olallie sure felt good! I would have swam in Island, but it still had ice floating on it... brrrr!





The hike itself is pretty straight forward and we were able to finish in only about 3 hours, even after taking a lunch break at Olallie and meandering back to the cars. The weather was nice and cool but not raining, perfect hiking weather. The WTA volunteers were out in full force making mud puddles where they were tearing out big rocks and replacing them with board walks. That trail is sure going to look nice when they are all done!





Hiking up there really felt good after the first mile was over with. I was sucking air the whole first mile, but then my breathing slowed and it was fun after that. It also got my hiking bug to come back and now I am really excited about my hiking plans for the next few weeks. I have Lime Kiln Trail, Bare Mountain, Green Lake, Mount Beljica and Lake Wynoochee happening all within the next month and I'm really excited for all of it!

What hikes do you have planned for the next few weeks?