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Trip Report

Moose Lake, Grand Valley Loop & Lillian Ridge — Saturday, Jul. 3, 2021

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

Did an overnight to Grand Valley over 4th of July weekend. We stayed 2 nights and on the middle day we did the Moose Peak traverse scramble.

Moose Lake was beautiful but certain areas of the valley are mosquito factories. In more open spaces where a breeze might blow more consistently they weren't too bad but I did find myself wearing a bug net over my head. Par for the course for early season and with such a heavy snowpack. Also the deer really don't care at all about humans so keep a safe distance just in case.

The Moose Peak traverse involves starting at Moose lake, hiking up to Gladys lake along the established path and then cutting up the boot path to low pass. The start of the bootpath was snow covered so it was a bit harder to find although not difficult with GPS and a map. The trail up to low pass is fine; not a scramble. The path from low pass south over the first minor peak and up to Moose Peak is equally uneventful. This section of the traverse is also by far the most scenic with a beautiful 360 view including mount olympus to the west, Grand Valley to the east, the foothills and ocean to the north, and other olympic peaks' north facing and hence still snow be-speckled slopes to the south. The traverse down from Moose Peak across a jagged section is the real "scramble" part of this scramble. One is forced to traverse the east facing slope to avoid said jagged edge. While there isn't much exposure the slopes are still quite steep and loose. Some sections involve a controlled slow slide as remaining static between descending steps is very difficult. The last challenge was ascending a crumbly gully just before rejoining a trail back to the Lillian trail junction. The well graded trail was a welcome site after the scramble. Overall route finding was not difficult for this scramble.

Below are some photo spheres from the traverse:

Also as many other posters have noted, the road to obstruction point is in great condition; Thank you Olympic NP Management!

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