Three Forks, Cameron Creek, Grand Pass, Grand Ridge & Lillian Ridge — Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

We did this Cameron/Grand loop trip from Deer Park in 1975 with our then 4 and 5 year old girls. We have never had a chance to go back since that time so we were looking forward to the chance to rekindle some memories and see how things have changed. We got the usual late start after the ferry and permits, so the first night we just went as far as Three Forks Camp. A nice downhill trail the whole way with a nice campsite and old shelter at Three Forks. The next day we tackled the tougher Lower Cameron Trail, as well as the trail over Grand Pass to Moose Lake. We had heard several warnings from other hikers, trail reports and even the permitting rangers about the poor condition of the Cameron trail, but trail conditions are so subjective we wanted to find out for ourselves and give an objective report. So here's the tally on the seven miles of the Lower Cameron Trail: 2600 foot elevation gain, 600 foot loss 40 downed trees that you have to navigate over, around, under or through 3 minor washouts and 1 major washout 1 good footlog crossing over Cameron Creek 1 tough footlog crossing over Cameron Creek where the footlog is inundated with debris Some brushy parts of the trail but never where the trail was hidden The major washout is about 1 mile down from the Grand Pass Intersection. It is impossible to get down the steep bank, but previous hikers have bushwhacked a trail to an easy crossing of the riverbed. You can follow where others have created this rough trail through the brush going downstream from the original trail. The crossing is then easy but bushwhacking up and down is not. With all that being said, everything on the trail is very doable, it will just take you a lot more time and energy than normal. We are not fast hikers, but it still took us a full seven hours to go the seven miles. The campsites on the Lower Cameron trail are not formal, but there are decent campsites near both of the Creek crossings and another a mile or so upstream from the upper crossing. So after exploring Cameron Creek we still had to hike up and over Grand Pass to our assigned campsite on Moose Lake. It is a very steep trail going up the south side of the pass and we now wonder how we ever got our young daughters up it. Just a smidgeon of snow remaining on the north side of the pass and a good trail down to the lakes. Several beautiful campsites on Moose Lake and we were lucky enough to have permits for two nights there. And actually we only saw a very few people at the lakes and most campsites were empty, since the Obstruction Point Road had been closed due to fires. Our last day we hiked out via Lilllian Ridge and Grand Ridge to Deer Park. These are both spectacular ridge top trails with great views almost the whole way, of both the mountains and the salt water and islands to the north. These trails were all in very good shape with a few very steep traverses between Obstruction Point and Deer Park. Due to the road closure, the trails around Obstruction Point were deserted but we ran into lots of day hikers as we got closer to Deer Park on Saturday afternoon.