Lower South Fork Skokomish River — Friday, Jun. 21, 2024

Unfortunately, the trailhead itself was quite loud, as a nearby family camping across the road from the parking area had both adults and children yelling at each other quite frequently. Thankfully, we quickly left the noisy family and instead heard the lovely sounds of robins, dark-eyed juncos, red-breasted nuthatches, Pacific wrens, and olive-sided flycatchers. From the trailhead to Comfort Camp, the trail is well maintained, with seven bridges and a few small creeks to rock hop over. We only encountered a handful of dayhikers. 

The three of us backpacked for about 5 miles during 80+ degree temps to the Comfort Camp sign and then took the left path toward the river, which brought us to four flat areas with makeshift fire rings. There was already a group at the first site, so we chose the site farthest from the turnoff, which also ended up being pretty close to the river. Although on the hike out, we also saw tents pitched on the riverbanks about a quarter of a mile before the Comfort Camp turnoff, so there are quite a few creative places to pitch a tent.

Unfortunately, the heat brought out all the bugs! That first night was full of mosquitos, gnats, and other tiny black bugs. Thankfully the next night was much less buggy. And while you encounter a few bugs on the trail, they were never a nuisance. (Though we would still recommend you use mosquito repellant if you are sensitive to their bites.)

With Comfort Camp as our base, the next day we hiked the entire rest of the 5 miles of the Lower South Fork Skokomish River Trail. From Comfort Camp to the end, the trail is not as well maintained, with a few soft climbs and descends, similar to the first half of the hike. We passed numerous areas where the foliage was overgrown on both sides of the footpath. If you decide to venture into this part of the hike, we highly recommend you wear pants because quite a few prickly plants were crowding into the trail! While, we did see a lot of horse hoof prints (and poop) and bike tracks in this area of the hike, we had the entire trail to ourselves.

The path takes you pretty far away from the river, but there are a couple of creek crossings where you can refill your water filters. The Lower South Fork Skokomish River Trail dead ends into the South Fork Skokomish River. You can cross the water to get to the connector trail that can take you to more campsites and the Upper South Fork Skokomish River Trail. And if you are not into getting cold feet, it looked as if you may be able to cross via a few recently downed trees. We decided to stop here, have our lunch, and enjoy these new views of the river. After lunch, we headed back to our camp. We saw a couple of Rufous hummingbirds and heard some kingfishers, northern flickers, ravens, Stellar's jays, and more Pacific wrens. And that night, we were seranaded by nighthawks and barred owls.

The last day, we hiked back out to the car, with much cooler and bearable hiking weather, where we passed many more day hikers. Unfortunately, that noisy family was still making their noises by the trailhead! We highly recommend this trail for a quick and easy backpacking getaway. As a bonus, you can take a detour to the High Steel Bridge, and enjoy the spectacular views of the South Fork Skokomish River Gorge.