Staircase Rapids, Four Stream & Shady Lane — Sunday, Jun. 22, 2025

The dirt portion of the North Shore Lake Cushman Rd is freshly graded and the potholes are. A nice smooth drive into the park! We arrived at 7:30. No one in the ranger station. Plenty of parking in the upper lot. The Staircase Rapids trail to the bridge is in great shape. There's lots of wild flowers blooming. The Four Stream trail is more narrow and rocky out to Beaver Flat. North of Beaver Flat the trail gets tricky. We ran into 3 trail washout. We got around 2. The third involved hopping from 1 rock to another about 3 feet over a ditch 3 or 4 feet deep. The rocks looked loose and the far side of the trail looked steep and slippery. Falling there could be a serious problem. We turned around about 0.5 miles from the Four Stream camp. Not sure if the trail is good enough to get to the camp or up into the stream gully. We went back to the TH and explored Shady Lane. There were nice spots. We saw the mine. There's a neat grotto like spot. We went to the Copper Creek trail intersection. We tried to take the trail south to the causeway. That part of the trail is now part of the river flood zone. So back to the TH a little after noon. Cars were parked everywhere. Parking lot full and most shoulder parking almost to the ranger station. Still a beautiful morning in the forest!