Rough trail but fun and stunning views! Berries are on their way out but fall colors are starting to come out. Some of the road doesn't seem to exist on Google, but do yes on Bing, Apple, Gaia, and Alltrails. So close to Three Fingers that you can make out the lookout! I highly recommend poles and a gps track. The trail is pretty easy to follow but in a few places it is a touch ambiguous. The video below shows a bit of the drive.
Road/Parking: WTA has the right milage and Google has the right trailhead on the map, but it seems to only know about half the road so if you use it to navigate it will tell you that you have arrived when you are only halfway down the forrest road. The road gets progressively narrower and worse as you go. We did it with 6.9" clearance and it was ok but we would have hit in one small washout if we hadn't been able to straddle it just right. There is also one very deep hole (over a foot) just before the TH that someone marked with a large stick. There is parking for at least 6 at the TH and there were about 4 vehicles when we arrived a little before 11 on a nice Saturday, and 2 when we left around 3:30. There are no facilities but there is a trail register.
Trail: Per the register about half of the people were rock climbing and we only saw a couple hiking groups. The trail starts out wide and mild with evidence of lots of cleared trees and trail work, but it doesn't stay that way for long. It get rooty, rocky, muddy (shallowish), slippery in spots, some minor tree fall to go over and under, steep, some rooks to climb, just enough to make you really work for it and feel like a bit of an adventure. Lots of dogs out and seemed like most of the terrain was tougher on us than them. We all slipped at least once on the way back down. The top is stunning, with Three Fingers so close even with a bit of haze it was great. We couldn't quite make out details of the lookout but we could see it. Lots of room to spread out and take in the view but we had the place to ourselves anyhow. No water except some stagnant pools.
Stats: ~ 5.25 miles, 2400 ft gain/loss, 4.4 hours total, 3.4 hours moving. We are fast/moderate paced hikers who hike weekly.
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