Road to the TH is suitable for any vehicle; the TH is the Ross Dam parking area near milepost 134 on Hwy 20. This is a good sized parking lot, and there is a restroom on a short spur trail (15 yards?) to the right of the TH sign.
The entire Big Beaver Trail is long, and a good backpacking destination; my hiking friend and her husband had backpacked the loop years ago and had a blast. We decided to hike the beginning portion as a day hike. The trail descends 3/4 mi. passing Happy Creek to Ross Dam, a great destination in itself if one is looking for a short leg-stretcher. Crossing over the dam, the trail continues along the west shore of Ross Lake. The path is a gentle and slightly rolling up-and-down through forest which ranges from vine maples and pacific dogwoods to the drier pine and fir of the rain shadow. There are several nice viewpoints of Ross Lake and surrounding peaks along the way, but the trail is predominantly forested, which is nice and shaded on a hot sunny day. At 1.6 miles, a spur trail to the right leads to Ross Lake Resort and another spur at 1.9 mi. leads to Green Point, another good destination for a shorter day hike. At the 3.8 mi. point is a spur to the left for the Sourdough Lookout trail. At 6 miles in you reach Pierce Creek and Falls; the falls are spectacular with a high volume of water crashing through a tight chasm with what looked to be about a 300' drop. This also makes a good stopping point for a day hike; there are several places on either side of the bridge crossing Pierce creek that would be a nice lunch spot, or just to sit and admire the water. We continued onwards to the cool suspension bridge that crosses Big Beaver Creek another mile from the falls, and stopped for lunch at Big Beaver Camp another quarter mile past the bridge. There are many nice campsites here with picnic tables, fire rings, tent pads and food storage lockers. Outhouse style restrooms towards the far side of the camp. For such a lovely weekend, we were surprised to see not many people overnighting here.
There are a few blowdowns here and there along the trail past Ross Dam, all are small and easily stepped over. Also a few small stream crossings, but these are easily walked through or rock-hopped. Calypso orchids were all along the trail, as well as pockets of blooming dogwood, a few paintbrush and some tiny monkeyflowers.
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