Forum Index > Trip Reports > Thomas / Blue / Tombstone Lakes: 09/17/22
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fourteen410
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Joined: 23 May 2008
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fourteen410
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PostSun Sep 18, 2022 8:15 pm 
Took an afternoon trip to the Gifford Pinchot to enjoy summer's last act. I love this time of year - fewer people and no bugs. Left the Thomas Lake TH around noon. A quick half mile brought us to the first group of lakes: Dee, Heather, Thomas, and Eunice.
Dee Lake
Dee Lake
Thomas Lake
Thomas Lake
Eunice
Eunice
Eunice
Eunice
A short uphill section delivered us to pleasant flat tread. A small spur trail led to peekaboo views of St. Helens.
inside of a pinecone
inside of a pinecone
A nice meadowy stroll led to another short uphill through the woods. Lots of funny burls in here.
Soon we reached a four way junction and headed south to Blue Lake. Lots of blueberry shrubs along the way. Colors here will be fantastic in a couple weeks.
Passed a number of small lakes along the way. Most were quite shallow.
Lake Umtux
Lake Umtux
Stopped for a couple minutes at quiet Lake Sahalee Tyee.
Then we dropped down to beautiful Blue Lake. There are plenty of Blue Lakes in Washington, but this one was actually quite blue.
From Blue we took a short spur trail down to Tombstone Lake. Supposedly it's named after a tombstone-shaped rock in the lake. You'd have to have quite the imagination to see it as a tombstone though.
the tombstone
the tombstone
From Tombstone, we headed back up to the four way junction and took a quick side trip to Rock Lake.
Rock Lake
Rock Lake
One our way down, we stopped off for a late lunch at Brader Lake. Not much shoreline here - I can't imagine there's any earlier in the year. Played a muddy game of fetch before heading back to the trail.
Stopped by Thomas again before following lovely forest down to the car.
Another great trip in the GPNF up.gif

Tom, John Mac, RichP, rubywrangler, awilsondc
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