Crescent, the source of the Lyre River, lies 579 feet above sea level and forms a narrow arc at the northern edge of the Olympics. Almost 9 miles long and about a mile wide, the lake covers slightly more than 5000 acres, making it the third largest natural lake in western Washington. Originally called Lake Everett, in honor of John Everett, a Hudson’s Bay Company trapper who sought furs along its wooded shores, the lake was renamed because its form roughly resembles a crescent. The largest lake in the Olympic Mountains, it occupies a trough deepened during the last ice age by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which moved westward down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Except at its two ends, the lake has a precipitous shoreline and is bordered by steep, forest-clad mountains. On clear winter days, the snowy slopes cast silvery reflections in the intensely blue waters.
The lake is suited to various activities, including swimming, boating, fishing, and water skiing. At one time anglers trolled its waters for the Beardslee trout, a variety of rainbow. This fish, named for Leslie A. Beardslee, its discoverer, was declared by ichthyologist David S. Jordan to be a new species. However, it no longer exists in a pure state because it has crossbred with hatchery-raised fish. The lake also contained the crescenti trout, a unique type of cutthroat. But it, too, has been hybridized.
Lake Crescent is paralleled on the south by Aurora Ridge, the divide between two rivers, the Lyre and the Sol Duc; on the north by a lower ridge that culminates in Pyramid Mountain. Near the lake’s eastern end, Mount Storm King rises 4000 feet above the water. Mountain goats clamber on its cliffs, and it was here in the 1920s that the animals were introduced in the Olympics. Since then they have spread throughout the mountains.
About a dozen creeks flow into the lake from the bordering ridges and keep the water level constant. Barnes Creek, the largest, has built a small delta at its mouth. The lake has its outlet in the Lyre River, which flows from the northernmost point to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, only 5 miles distant.
Geologists believe that the lake originally drained to the Elwha, via Indian Creek, but that a slide pinched off the eastern part (thus creating Lake Sutherland) and the drainage was then diverted to the north, via the Lyre River.
Among the first settlers on Lake Crescent were Sarah Barnes and Paul Barnes, mother and brother of Charles A. Barnes, who was second in command of the Press Expedition. They settled on the delta of Barnes Creek in the 1890s, and in later years other members of the family established homesteads at various points on the lake.
ROADS
Several roads provide access to the trails near Lake Crescent. At one time ferries plied up and down the lake, but they disappeared with the building of the Olympic Highway along the south shore. Trails begin at various points and climb to the nearby peaks and ridges. (Several of the trails are also accessible from roads leading to Olympic Hot Springs and Sol Duc Hot Springs. See road descriptions in the Elwha and Sol Duc chapters.)
Olympic Highway (US 101). This highway loops around the Olympic Mountains on the three seaward sides of the peninsula—Hood Canal, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Pacific Ocean. The road cuts through the northern edge of the mountains at Lake Crescent, making that district—together with Hurricane Ridge—the most accessible part of Olympic National Park. Within the park the highway parallels the lake’s southern shore. Numerous turnouts are provided where one can stop and look at the vistas. At various times in the past, conservationists proposed building an alternate route outside the national park for commercial traffic, thus reserving the road along the lake as a scenic parkway, where people could drive slowly and enjoy the views. Unfortunately, the proposals came to naught. In 1982, the State Highway Department began widening and straightening the highway so that commercial vehicles and logging trucks could travel at a higher rate of speed.
Distances on US 101 from downtown Port Angeles to the Lake Crescent area are as follows: Elwha River, 8.5 mi/13.7 km; East Beach Road, 15.9 mi/25.6 km; Storm King Ranger Station, 19.6 mi/31.6 km; Aurora Creek Trail, 22.4 mi/36.1 km; La Poel Picnic Area, 23.9 mi/
38.5 km; Fairholme Resort, at the western end of the lake, 26.6 mi/42.8 km; Camp David Jr. Road, 26.8 mi/43.1 km; Sol Duc Hot Springs Road, 28.5 mi/45.9 km.
East Beach Road. This road begins on the Olympic Highway, 15.9 mi/25.6 km west of Port Angeles, climbs slightly, then descends to the eastern end of Lake Crescent, where it crosses into the national park. The road winds along the lake’s northern shore to the small community of Piedmont (3.1 mi/5.0 km) and the Log Cabin Resort. At 3.3 mi/5.3 km the road forks: Boundary Creek Road branches to the left; East Beach Road continues to the right.
Boundary Creek Road. The road begins at Piedmont, 3.3 mi/5.3 km from US 101, and crosses the Lyre River to a spur road (0.7 mi/1.1 km), then angles right and enters the national forest. The spur road leads left (0.2 mi/0.3 km) to a parking area at the eastern terminus of the Spruce Railroad Trail.
Camp David Jr. Road. This road begins at a junction with the Olympic Highway, just beyond Fairholme Resort, near the western end of Lake Crescent. The road provides access to Fairholme Campground and its nature trail, the Pyramid Mountain Trail, and the Spruce Railroad Trail.
The road ends at a turnaround (4.8 mi/7.7 km).
1SPRUCE RAILROAD TRAIL
Length: 4.1 mi/6.5 km
Access: Camp David Jr. Road; East Beach Road
Custom Correct Map: Lake Crescent / Happy Lake Ridge, Washington
Green Trails Map: Lake Crescent, Wa. No. 101
Agency: Olympic National Park
This is a good trail to hike during the winter. It is unique in the Olympics because it follows an old railroad grade, that of the Spruce Railroad, about 600 feet above sea level, along the north shore of Lake Crescent. During World War I, the government built the railroad from Port Angeles to the west side of the Olympic Peninsula in order to obtain spruce to use in airplane construction.
The trail has been incorporated into the larger Olympic Discovery Trail, a non-motorized trail system that stretches across the Olympic Peninsula from Port Townsend to the Pacific coast. This is one of the few trails in the Olympic National Park that is open to bicycles and pets.
Snow often covers the peaks and ridges above the trail in the winter. On cloudy days Lake Crescent is slate-colored, but the views are excellent, and the friendly ducks—hungry now that the tourists have departed—will approach you and engage in a bit of panhandling. (However, the park strongly discourages the feeding of any wild animals.) During the summer, ticks are abundant and can be a problem. So too, the poison oak. In fact, this is one of the few places in the Olympics where both ticks and poison oak are encountered.
The trail starts just off the East Beach Road near the lake’s outlet and climbs away from the water, going by the remnants of an old orchard. The first mile of the trail has been turned into a gravel road to provide access to the McPhee Tunnel. The trail then descends back to the lake and keeps close to the shore, where it provides frequent views of the lake and the forested peaks, including Mount Storm King. On the trail’s uphill side the slopes are clad with dark, somber conifers. After rounding Harrigan Point, the trail turns southeast as it approaches McPhee Tunnel. At the tunnel’s west entrance (1.1 mi/1.8 km) the trail splits; to the right it enters the tunnel, recently reopened by the park. The basalt rock has been stabilized by covering the surface with sprayed concrete. Hikers choosing this route should take a flashlight since the tunnel is quite dark.
The trail to the left
