It’s fall and you might be looking to hit that popular summer hike that you are hoping has less foot traffic on it now. Lake 22 would not be such a hike, but the views and the trail are worth braving the crowds.
As we made our way down, we probably passed 30-40 people and saw another 20 staging near the trailhead with a completely full parking lot by 10 am on a Saturday in late October.
Our hike that morning benefitted greatly from my brother “hikingislife” and his knowledge of this hike (he’s an expert in all things hiking around the Seattle area and really all around the Pacific Northwest). For this hike, he was clear, we needed to show up and start hiking while it was basically still dark, to avoid the inevitable congestion on the trail.
With a 7:40-ish sunrise, we arrived around 7:10 and prepped for the ascent. We were the first car and the first ones to hit the trail that day while it was still dark. We went by some early water features on the way up that we didn’t see due to the low light levels.
The trail is listed as 2.7 miles to the top or 5.4 miles round trip if you can do the math. The first 1-1.5 miles of the trail is fairly heavily wooded. After that, you finally emerge into some open areas that provide breathtaking views of the valley below.
There’s still quite a bit of trail left from this point, but it was nice to emerge from the thick woods and take a look around.
The last half of the trail were probably my favorite sections due to the open areas and views combined with some steeper switch backs.
Hiking in these sub-alpine areas during the fall can just be epic when it comes to the surrounding natural beauty. There’s some fantastic weather on the forecast in the next coming week to get out and experience the fall colors.
As we made it to the top, the lake came into view…sort of. The fog was completely socked in, but actively lifting and moving as we rested and took it all in.
I stopped on the little wooden bridge near the entrance to the Lake 22 shoreline. The above picture is from the outlet creek that slowly drains the lake and provides some of the magnificent waterfalls and features we viewed on the hike back down.
We snapped a few more pics and as a few more hikers started to show up around the lake, we started our descent back down the trail.
On the way back down we probably crossed paths with 20+ hikers as we began to understand the congestion factor my brother had talked about leading up to the trip.
On the way back down, we took several small spur trails to view some cool waterfalls like the one pictured above.
As we re-emerged in the parking lot at the trailhead, we saw that by 10am, the entire parking lot and overflow areas were full. Don’t show up late to this one!
Getting to the Lake 22 Hike
The Lake 22 trailhead is accessed off of the Mountain Loop Rd east of Granite falls. Basically about 60-90 minutes north of Seattle.
Looking for other potential hiking options for the fall? Checkout our guide to the best hikes around Seattle for some other ideas.
