Ross Dam Trail, Big Beaver Trail — Friday, Jul. 21, 2023

Gained early access for the NCNP backcountry permits and picked Big Beaver camp for a two night stay from Friday to Sunday to see how the pup would do backpacking. Road in is easy as it is all pavement. Parking is a bit of a mess as this is the parking lot for the Ross Lake Resort so it can be extremely busy. We lucked out and pulled into the final two spots available. Trail starts out with a bit of a drop and that makes the end of the trip pretty brutal, especially with heavy packs. Directions are clear on where to go while getting to and crossing the Dam. Honestly pretty spectacular to walk across the dam and experience just how large it is. Once across the dam the trail is in great shape and easy to follow. Maybe a total of 3 downed trees all the way to Big Beaver camp and they were all easy to step over. With the dry conditions do note that the trail is dry and there are no water sources until about 5 miles in and then that one is pretty light at the moment. It isn't until Pierce creek that there is a substantial water source before getting to the lake itself where water is plentiful. Take this into account especially for the way back since your water source is in the first two miles and then nothing until you are back to the car. We arrived at camp and was surprised to see no one else out there and so we had first pick on sites. Pretty surreal to share the entire campground with only two other campers for the night. Reports before are spot on in saying that this is basically a car campground. Great toilets stocked with TP and handsantizer, Bear boxes that fit all of our backpacks, fire pits and a picnic table. It was an incredible site to spend the weekend at. On Saturday we did some exploring up the big beaver trail. We only went a few miles but it was beautiful and there were no trail issues. We spoke with a man who had done the big beaver/little beaver loop and he stated that the little beaver side was a mess but smooth sailing on the big beaver side. As we made our way back to camp we noticed it began to fill up. Lots of kayakers, backpackers and boaters which was fun to see. Big beaver falls was the highlight of the area and a great area to hang out and filter your water. Water was great for swimming and the breeze coming off the mountains made for a less buggy weekend! All in all, a great weekend getaway!