Beaver Lake Trail #783

Beaver Lake is an easy enjoyable walk through the woods which makes it a great family hike.  It has historical significance as well following the old Sauk River Logging Railroad grade.  As you start your hike challenge yourself to find signs of the past, when at one time a train whistled its way through the forest.  The first sign will be old piers where once a bridge crossed the river.  Continuing onward note that you are walking on the old tracks themselves which have been buried although you may see them from time to time along the trail and in ditches.

This is a nice four season walk. In spring and early summer you’ll find an array of wildflowers such as Yellow Wood Violets,  Western Bleeding Heart and Trillium.  In autumn the trail is transformed as the leaves turn color and the forest floor becomes a fairy kingdom of fascinating mushrooms.  Cold winter days freeze the pond and frost clings to everything making this trail a wonder to experience.

At a little less than a mile, you encounter the first washout where you will see the old tracks protruding from the bank of the Sauk River.  If you look down toward the river you will see the old trestle that at one time supported the rails.  For several years the trail halted here due to the washout.  A Washington Trails Association volunteer crew cut a new trail into the bank reconnecting the route to the beaver pond.  Once getting back on the old grade, you soon come to a bridge crossing over part of the beaver pond.  The pond is a work of natural art with one long wall creating a continuous dam, somewhat like a small scale Great Wall of China. This pond and habitat would not exist, if it had not been for the work of some very busy and determined beavers.

A short distance past the beaver pond, the trail comes to a second washout which is impassable.  At one time this trail continued onward to the Mountain Loop Highway.  Now this is two trails, the other end going to the Lookout Tree, another unique historical walk.

Views From Beaver Lake Trail