Jeremy

Lake 22 is a popular, roughly 7-mile hiking trail about an hour northeast of Seattle that offers some stunning views, a gorgeous mountain lake, and more. 

We were fortunate enough to hit this trail when we were visiting Washington and wanted to share a bit more about what to expect on this one. 

To put it bluntly, it is an amazing day trip near Seattle- you just need to be prepared for all trail conditions imaginable!

Note: We’ve seen the trail name written as Lake 22, Lake Twentytwo and Lake Twenty Two. We use these interchangeably in this post and apologize for any confusion.

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Washington is a gorgeous, gorgeous state (you’ll likely find no objections to that by anyone who has visited). During our time in the state, we found so many stunning spaces both in Seattle and out in nature that had us in awe almost everywhere we went.

But one trail stuck out as being the most stunning above all others, and that is The Summit Lake Trail near Carbonado- about two hours outside of Seattle and just a stone’s throw away from Mount Rainier.

While you may not be summiting the famous mountain in this one, it does command a pretty impressive view of the mountaintop all the same.

But, as a word of warning, you’re going to want to have an SUV to reach the trailhead- the drive in is really the worst part!

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Portland, Maine, is a beer city. There is no doubt about that. It really doesn’t take long after arriving that you really begin to appreciate just how many Portland breweries there are, and when you reflect on just how small the city is outright, the scale of the beer scene here is truly impressive.

While we didn’t make it to all of the breweries in Portland during our visit, we did hit a good cross-section and share a summary of each in the round-up below!

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Oh Acadia National Park. Breathtaking isn’t a strong enough word to describe how stunning the hiking trails are here. We spent the better part of three days out exploring all we could in this park and felt like we did this one a great deal of justice.

Naturally, we have to share a few of our favorite trails from all of our hikes.

But before we do, we have to take a step back and mention a big caveat that could change your plans outright. When it comes to hiking in Acadia National Park, the biggest thing we would advise visitors is to not get your heart set out on exploring any specific trail. Seriously!

While it is good to have an idea of the trails you’d like to hike, the reason we say this is that hiking trails in Acadia regularly close for routine maintenance, fixing washed-out paths due to inclement weather, and also seasonal issues things like falcon nesting season. All closures can be seen on the National Park Website, although keep in mind that trails can close without advanced notice for any reason. (Others, like Cadillac Mountain, are ticketed and can sell out- so you may also consider booking a guided tour for some experiences.)

During our July visit, for example, the Precipice Trail was both due to falcon nesting, the brief hike out to the Sand Bar didn’t work out due to tide timing, and many of the carriage trails were closed for repairs as well (including one that was seemingly only closed the day we were there). As there is nothing you can do about this in most cases, we simply think it is best to go in with a mindset of you can get what you can get here.

So, with that, let’s talk about some of the trails we love!

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