Hester Lake via Dingford Creek

October 31, 2026

My friend Ellery, his dog Taco and I hiked up Dingford Creek to Hester Lake, and it was a lot more work than the numbers make it look. This is a difficult trail. It starts rocky and steep, goes long and flat in the middle (if you can find it), and finishes with switchbacks that feel like they go straight up. It was beautiful and worth it. I'm also sore today.

Trail details

It's 10.8 miles round trip with 2,600 feet of gain to a high point of 3,900 feet, and WTA rates it hard. From I-90 exit 34, take the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Road 12 miles to the Middle Fork trailhead, then cross the concrete bridge and turn right onto the Dingford road for six heavily potholed miles to the Dingford Creek trailhead. Take Dingford Creek Trail #1005, then go right at the fork about three miles in onto the Hester Lake trail. You need a Northwest Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass (checked November 2026), and dogs are allowed on leash. Expect several creek crossings, lots of mud, and a stretch where the trail is easy to lose.

Water sliding down a broad mossy granite slab at Pumpkinseed Falls, surrounded by evergreens

Rocky and steep from the start

The trail starts climbing right away. The beginning is rocky, uneven and steep, with rocks on the trail and boulders lining it. WTA says the big mossy ones are glacial erratics, dropped here when ice covered the valley. About a mile in you pass Pumpkinseed Falls, a creek running down a big granite slab.

A broken old-growth stump wrapped around a moss-covered boulder

The forest floor was full of fungi: white shelves on the logs, a clump of coral fungus that looked like a tiny frozen waterfall, and a cluster of purple mushrooms.

White shelf fungi growing in a line along a mossy fallen log

A white, icicle-like coral fungus growing out of a rotting log

Three purple mushrooms growing out of a mossy stump

The long, muddy middle

After the first climb, the trail flattens out for a long stretch. That sounds like the easy part, and mostly it is, except for the part where you have to find the trail. It isn't well marked, and we had to stop a couple of times to figure out where it went.

Ellery and his German shepherd, Taco, walking over logs and planks through the forest

There's mud. Lots of mud. Some of it you can step around on logs, and some of it you just walk through.

A deep, wet mud pit on the trail, with a hiking boot stepping over it on a log

There are also multiple creek crossings. On one of them I slipped on a rock and dunked my left foot, so I got to walk the whole way back down with one soaking wet boot. Bring extra socks.

Ellery crossing a rocky creek bed with his backpack, with Taco waiting for him on the far side

A forested peak with a dusting of snow, seen through the trees

Straight up to Hester Lake

At the fork, the Hester Lake trail heads off to the right. WTA says it climbs about 1,000 feet in two and a half miles, and the last push felt like going straight up switchbacks.

A steep, brushy slope of boulders and fresh snow below the lake

Pale green lichen, club moss and red leaves on the ground near the lake

Then the trail ends at the lake. We had fresh snow on the peaks and on the logs along the shore, and the water was clear enough to see the sunken logs on the bottom. Mount Price is the craggy peak above it.

Hester Lake under a blue sky, with snow-dusted mountains reflected in the water and fall colors along the shore

Jereme smiling with one boot up on a snowy log at the edge of Hester Lake, with snow-dusted mountains behind him

Clear water over sunken logs along the Hester Lake shore, with snowy forested slopes behind

Snow-covered logs on the shore of Hester Lake, with the snowy mountain behind

A big evergreen and fall-colored brush on the shore of Hester Lake, with a snowy log and a forested peak under blue sky

A jam of snow-dusted logs floating at the end of Hester Lake

Is it worth it?

Yes. It's a hard day between the mud, the creeks and the route finding, but the lake at the end, with snow on the peaks, was worth it. Ellery, Taco and I also hiked Snow Lake and Gem Lake this summer. For more like it, browse my Washington hikes or my Blanca Lake post.