Royal Lake lies at the foot of a capacious alpine valley holding a spectacular collection of tarns, glaciers and 7,000' peaks collectively called Royal Basin. The hike begins in the Olympic National Forest on the Dungeness River Trail before departing up Royal Creek to the lake. It continues above Royal Lake into the Upper Basin, where you'll find a network of meadows, waterfalls and tarns.

The Upper Basin Trail scales a deep alpine valley to reach the glacial tarns

The Upper Basin is dotted with tarns beneath dozens of large snowfields and glacial remnants

The main trail continues south of Royal Lake into a large meadow

Streams with brook trout oxbow through a large meadow behind Royal Lake

This popular tarn is located .95 miles and 590' up from Royal Lake

Lupine gets its name from the Latin word for wolf (lupus), a reference to the belief it consumed a lot of the mineral content in the soil

Royal Lake (5,107') lies at the foot of Royal Basin

Glaciers grind rock into a fine, mineral-rich flour that gives tarns a milky blue color

A glacier is defined as a perennial mass of snow or ice that's large and heavy enough to flow like a thick gel; glaciers form wherever more snow accumulates than is lost each year

A vast alpine meadow lies between Royal Lake and the Upper Basin

Much of the first 3 miles feature a thin, iridescent moss carpeting the forest floor

The trail levels to a fork in the Upper Basin where you may branch to various attractions

A glacier is a perennial mass of snow or ice that's large and heavy enough to flow, like a thick gel

Royal Basin holds the highest concentration of 7,000' peaks in the Olympics

Glaciers form where more snow accumulates than is lost each year