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Copyright © Craig Romano/The Mountaineers Books Capitol State Forest - Capitol Peak
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Day Hiking: Olympic Peninsula,
by Craig Romano.
A portion of all book sales from the links above benefits WTA and helps protect and maintain our trails. Hike this trail and dream of the possibilities for the Capitol State Forest. There's no reason that this 90,000-acre piece of the public domain can't be Olympia's Tiger Mountain. But the area has been long plagued by illegal dumping, shooting, and other problems, causing hikers to shy away. Motorized groups have adopted trails on their half of the forest, and equestrian groups work on nonmotorized trails, but where are the hiking groups? If hikers begin taking more of a vested interest in this forest-volunteering on trail crews, cleanups, and watches-the problems will dissipate. Capitol Forest is getting better, but it's going to take a lot of work from dedicated citizens and some better funding and management from the state to transform this parcel into what it should be-a prime hiking destination. Contemplate this vision as you hike along the Capitol Crest, the rooftop of the Black Hills. From your high start (1880 feet) hike Trail No. 30 for about 0.3 mile to a junction. Turn right onto Trail No. 6, the Green Line. On very good tread begin a rolling ridgetop romp to Capitol Peak. After about 1.3 miles, cross the C Line that you drove in on. Alternating between fir forests lined with oxalis (pretty white blooms in late spring) and raspberry-cloaked "balds"reminiscent of the southern Appalachians, the trail is a pure delight to travel. Teaser views of the Cascades, Olympics, and Willapa Hills are had along the way. At 2 miles you'll cross the C Line again, this time at its junction with the C-4000 Line on the left and the C-4010 Line on the right. The trail resumes a few hundred feet up the C-4010. Continue through more fir forests and shrubby openings. After 3 miles pass an old hitching point and then climb a little and drop a little through open forest with more peek-a-boo views. At 3.5 miles, cross another road. The trail, now paralleling two roads, climbs a small knoll above them only to descend where they meet up. Here, at 4 miles from your start, Trail No. 6 heads east, rapidly descending off the ridge. This is the end of your trail hike. To access Capitol Peak, walk the road north a few hundred feet to a three-way junction. Take the gated middle road and climb steeply to the 2659-foot peak, second-highest summit in the Black Hills. Under a skyline of communication towers, reach out to sweeping views. To the east are the Cascades, from Mounts Baker to Adams. Rainier is directly in front of you, rising above the Bald Hills. Extending to the north are the finger peninsulas and inlets of the South Sound. To the west, the Satsop Towers rise above the Chehalis Valley, while the Olympics and Pacific Ocean can be seen in the distance. Soak it all in and retrace your steps.
Driving Directions:
From Olympia head west on US 101 for 2 miles, taking the Black Lake Boulevard exit. Proceed south on Black Lake Boulevard. In 3.5 miles the road turns west, becoming 62nd Avenue. Continue another 0.7 mile to a stop sign. Turn left on Delphi Road, continuing for 2.2 miles. Turn right on Waddell Creek Road and in 2.7 miles enter the Capitol State Forest. Bear right onto Sherman Valley Road, and in 1.5 miles turn left onto the C Line. Follow this mostly gravel, sometimes paved road for 7 miles to a major junction (just beyond a quarry). Turn left, continuing on the C Line for 1.5 miles to the seriously neglected Wedekind Picnic Area. Park here. The trail starts on the west side of the C Line. Recent Trip Reports
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Followed this site's directions and they were pretty good except the Wedekind Picnic Area was not marked nor could I...
Followed this site's directions and they were pretty good except the Wedekind Picnic Area was not marked nor could I find anything that looked like a picnic table, etc. The trailhead is after going right at a Y (the right fork quickly ends at a large cleared area which can serve as parking. The trailhead is marked on the right just before the large cleared area. The trail is in good shape and the Greenline #6 trail is reached in about 0.6 miles (my estimate, guide says 0.3). Fork is marked to go right to Capitol Peak. Several road crossings are made by this trail. Always stick with the Greenline #6 trail, this will take you up near the summit. The second crossing is the only one that might be confusing. A multi fork of roads is reached. Go to the right uphill road (not extreme right downhill). You will find the trail again on the left side. After 4 miles the road reaches another multi fork of roads. This is the end of the trail. Take the middle road which is gated. I didn't see anybody the whole time until there. About 5 or 6 mountain bikers were gathered ready to descend. When I reached the gate, there was a hiker descending as well as a Qwest employee opening the gate so he could drive out. I spoke briefly with them. The hiker had started down below but not at the trailhead I used. This last stretch of road is a steep 1/2 mile or so to the summit. You can see all the towers from a distance. I also saw 2 ATV riders as well as one motorcycle rider. I did, however, have the summit all to myself. Nice views, although there were still some high clouds obscuring most of Mt Rainier. Mt St Helens was visible. Views to the west can be had on the western summit area, although they are not as good as the ones to the north and east. Puget Sound and Seattle's skyline were also visible. The highs and lows of the hike: High points were solitude on the trail, even the road crossings, I saw nobody. Nice trail in good shape. No motorized transport allowed on this trail. Only a few muddy spots, no blowdowns. Trail not steep, mostly flat or slight grade. Good workout distance-wise with almost 10 miles round trip. The lows were the fact that you can drive within almost 1/2 mile of the summit. Not my cup of tea usually but I had a nice hike. Weather was perfect for hiking in the '60's and sunny. Clouds cleared out more later and I stopped for more views on drive out by a large deposit of slash from logging roadside. I don't see this becoming popular like Mt Si anytime soon, as I saw suggested in a hiking guide. Trail is mostly used by mountain bikes and area is popular with ATV's. But check it out if your in the area.
Capitol State Forest - Capitol Peak
— Feb 13, 2011
— pnwmycohiker
Day hike
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IF you want to see some great views quickly, this is the hike for you. But, if you love nature...
IF you want to see some great views quickly, this is the hike for you. But, if you love nature as much as I do, go somewhere else, this place will depress you so fast. Here you get to view the tragedy of "reforestation". All the trees are strangely close together, thick dead scrub Alder fills the inside of the forest, doing all it can to keep the stunted pines and firs alive, yet doing nothing for their stunted growth. No plant diversity what so ever, because it isn't possible when, where once 20 trees stood enormous, 75 stunted trees stand crunched together to maximize profits. Garbage hopelessly everywhere, people ignore the "no motorized vehicles on trails" signs. People are shooting guns into rocks everywhere. There's really nothing in the way of nature to see, because nothing is natural here. The views would have been great if there wasn't a murky haze appropriately covering the peak. There's nothing else to say about this hike.
Capitol Peak, Segment 50#
— Jan 20, 2010
— OlympiaNickB
Day hike
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I planned on hiking the Capitol Peak by following a trip report on this website. I live in downtown...
I planned on hiking the Capitol Peak by following a trip report on this website. I live in downtown Olympia and from my West facing window I can see the Capitol Peak, and have always wanted to check it out. The directions were easy with the only discrepancy being that the "C-Line" rd was not identified, although it was quite natural that you would turn onto it when the time came. I got about 6.2 miles up the C-Line rd and was halted due to Logging. I turned around (not before I snapped a photo of both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens in the same frame and ended up parking on a turnoff right next to a trailhead labeled "Segment 50#". I hiked up about 3/4 mile or so and it was amazing- not too difficult and a good glute workout. My miniature Manchester Terrier could have managed easily. The trail has a pretty steep drop off and is heavily wooded, and being that we recently had a bit of rain there were about 12 waterfalls that went under the trail. Breathtaking. The sound of rushing water was enthralling. Pretty heavy pine, but I managed to get an excellent shot of Mt. Rainier. On the way back out of town, I stopped by the Forestry Headquarters on Black Lake Blvd., which is a division of the USDA. I picked up a map of the Capitol Forest, which they carry because of their close location to Capitol State Forest, although the Capitol Forest is owned by the Dept. of Natural Resources. I am definitely going back tomorrow, as I found out that the trail I was on meets up with another a little down the line(Green Line 6#) and ends up at the peak.
Capitol State Forest - Capitol Peak
— Jan 07, 2010
— mossy mom
Day hike
Issues:
Clogged drainage | Mud/Rockslide | Mudholes | Water on trail
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I did some exploring in the Capitol Forest this week. On this day I parked my car about a...
I did some exploring in the Capitol Forest this week. On this day I parked my car about a mile uphill from the Rock Candy trailhead and started out on the North Rim trail. I used that trail, The Mount Molly loop and various logging roads until I reached Capitol Peak. This was a confusing route to negotiate because my GPS does not have a map for the area. The trails at the start were rutted, rocky and uneven. Once I got to the Mount Molly Loop area the trails were smooth. ORV's are not allowed on the trails in the winter but in the summer they are allowed on the North End of the forest so the trails on the North end are not in good shape for hiking. Some ORV users ignore the rules and ride year round so you have to watch out for them. The trails on the south end are used and repaired by mountain bikers and ORV use is not allowed on them. Those trails are nicer but they are also open to mountain bikes year round. I don't know what it is like to share a trail with mountain bikers but perhaps one day I will go down there and find out.
Once nice thing about hiking here is the lack of blow downs I hiked 13.7 miles RT without having to climb over a single blow down. There were some nice views from Capital Peak and I posted a lot of pictures and my track log on my blog at: http://mossswalks.blogspot.com I'm done posting my good pictures here since it means that the WTA will use there where ever they please on their website without even giving me proper credit. I spend too much on camera gear and put too much of my soul into my pictures for that.
Capitol Forest Peaks
— Mar 18, 2003
— Eric Willhite
Day hike
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I wanted to visit Capitol Forest near Olympia to see what it was all about. I visited 5 of...
I wanted to visit Capitol Forest near Olympia to see what it was all about. I visited 5 of the 6 named summits in only a few hours. I started with Mount Molly at 1,180 feet tall, it became the lowest peak I’ve climbed in Washington. The only map I had was from the National Geographic software but it worked pretty good. I drove the Waddell Creek road from Littlerock until I reached the Mt. Molly Campground. Just past the campground is a trail crossing sign. I parked here and hiked the multi-use trail that took me within feet of the summit in only 20 minutes. Back at the car, I drove the main road that takes you to the base of Little Larch Mtn. The road on most maps that traverses around the east of Little Larch is blocked, but I found a newer road that traversed the west side to near it’s summit. Another short scramble in the pouring rain brought me to this summit. I looked…no little larch trees. Next I drove up Capitol Peaks East Ridge road to near its summit. I hiked the final quarter mile because I was just hitting a bit of snow and my trucks tires are bald. No views due to clouds but the rain was gone for the day. I continued to hike from the summit down the north ridge of Capitol Peak towards Larch Mtn. Before reaching the “radio facility” noted on maps, a small spur road climbs over to the true summit of Larch. The spur road ends on the top. Just into the woods at the end of the road you will find the true summit marker, a USGS Delta post. Again….no larch trees. The walk back to my truck from here avoided climbing uphill by walking the road around Capitol Peaks northwest side. I almost settled with four peaks but I had to do Fuzzy Top Mountain. With a name like that, who could resist. With map in hand, I drove hoping to take the right roads. Soon I was at Wedekind Picnic Area, taking a left and soon, another left to the south side of Fuzzy Top. I just climbed up the hill until I reached the summit. The top has a small old growth forest, a summit sign and several sitting benches since a trail also reaches the top. I had driven past the trailhead a few minutes before parking below the peak; I just didn’t know the trail went to the summit. After getting back to my car, I consulted my maps and found I could continue down the road to exit the forest by Sherman Creek. This was a mistake, as all the exit routes have been rehabilitated at the bottom. I ended up driving out the west side of the Forest to Hwy 12. The only other peak I wanted was Rock Candy Mtn. Another day...another day.
Capitol Peak
— Feb 08, 2003
— HikerJim
Day hike
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The Capitol Forest is an area that has long interested me. It is a DNR owned working forest just...
The Capitol Forest is an area that has long interested me. It is a DNR owned working forest just like Tiger Mountain. Also like Tiger it has a large network of trails throughout. It is also at a low elevation which allows Winter hiking without much, if any, snow. My only previous attempt ended quickly as one party member developed a blister after only about a mile. Since then it has remained in my memory as a place to check out more thoroughly. A Mountaineer hike gave me a perfect chance to join a group for some exploring. Getting a newer map will solve alot of headaches. My old Footsore book is often incorrect as some roads have been closed down and many others have been created. I used Topozone.com and the map there is very often wrong. Fortunately, John had a newer map and helped us find the trailheads. |
Trailhead. Photo by Tomas.
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