The lake has a long history from the Indians who used to fish, hunt and gather along its shore to the early settlers of Packwood who looked to the lake for hydroelectric power in the early 1900's. This ranger cabin on the northeastern shore of the lake was built in 1910 and is one of the oldest buildings of its kind left in the whole national forest:
We continued onto the loop segment of our hike by staying on the Packwood Lake trail for another 3 and 1/2 miles as it climbed high above the lake. There were some interesting mushrooms along the way like this Coral Fungus:
Once we reached the Coyote Trail most of the climbing had been done for the day
Now it was just time to sagg along and enjoy the fruits of our labor, which consisted of some nice views of Mt Ranier early on:
And some interesting frost formations:
Before breaking out into the open even more there were some muddy sections to deal with
After a couple of miles things really start to open up with lots of interesting highpoints along the ridge peeking out to say hello:
Further along and the epic views of "Goat Rocks" really come to fruition with Old Snowy dominating the view at the head of the Upper Lake Creek drainage:
I was in another world of happiness
The closer we hiked the better things became
The clouds added another level of awesomeness to an already awesome day:
Although we didn't see any Coyotes on the Coyote Trail we did share the ridge with about a dozen or so Mountain Goats. Here are a couple of them peeking over the edge at us:
I pretended to be a goat for a second but it wasn't a very convincing imitation:
More goats down off the ridge:
After lunching with the goats for longer than planned we finally reached the Upper Lake Creek Trail junction at Packwood Saddle and our 7 1/2 mile ticket back to the lake trail:
The trail heads west along a tributary stream(Saddle Creek) as it loses elevation and descends into the Upper Lake Creek drainage. Several other tributary streams that dive off the ridge the Coyote Trail traverses have washed out the trail in many sections. In some cases it has been washed out by Upper Lake Creek itself leaving an eerie forest floor full of rock and debris:
The trail meets the creek at one point but can be picked up just a few hundred yards downstream as it reenters the forest. The views back up the creek were amazing:
After a few stream crossings near the lake(one named Beaver Bill Creek) we hit the well used segment of trail around the lake with some light left to spare. From that point we just hiked back along the shore as the day ended and night began to fall. Sort of funny as we ended up hiking the 4 1/2 mile stretch back to the TH in complete darkness, again
But it's more than worth the trade off this time of year with all the time we got to spend just lazing and exploring around the ridge top viewpoints and awesome creek side habitat earlier in the day. Also, a few Northwestern Salamanders were out on night patrol checking for NWFP's 
This one was about 1/3 the size of the fellow pictured above:
We stayed in a small hotel in Packwood again where we both tarped out after some dinner. The next morning came and with it came the rain. Spoiled by the nice weather the day before we decided on a couple of short hikes near Packwood in the nearby National Park. Not sure if we were required to pay or not but I pretty much just spaced it as we haven't done hardly any hiking inside many National Parks. Anyway, our first choice was a quick stop just outside the park at Grant Purcell Falls and the La Wis Wis Campground off hwy 12:
The campground was closed so we parked at the gate and walked through the campground to reach the creek. The phone died at the creek and this was the only shot I got, but it was beautiful to watch the stream cascade down the little gorge:
Next stop was a trip that would take us back in time almost 1,000 years in some cases as we hiked to the Grove of the Patriarchs inside Mt Ranier National Park. The trail travels along the crystal clear waters of the Ohanapecosh River with a side trail taking one across the water on an outstanding suspension bridge. Interpretive signs along the route clue visitors in to the way of an Old Growth Forest with the crown jewel of the grove being two 1,000 year old Douglas Firs that still cling to life:
They were absolutely massive:
Along with the two giant doug firs were several Western Red Cedars of great size and girth. Check my Santa Hat for scale:
This one was the largest:
Last but not least was a quick solo visit to Silver Falls just off the hwy. I wasn't expecting such an incredible setting around the falls but it was amazing in there:
I had to get a closer look:
One last shot of the equally impressive trail just downstream of the falls to close out another great trip to the woods
It does take some really nice shots.