What an amazing day for a hike! I took nearly 300 photos on this little jaunt and loved every minute of being on the trail today. The water was so blue and the river was totally gorgeous! I'd like to come back and take the North Fork Skokomish Trail further up into the park.
Weather: The drive up Hood Canal was very foggy this morning, so I assumed I was in for a moody day. Instead the fog lifted as I drove up to Lake Cushman from Hoodsport. My car said it was 49 when I rolled into the lot at 9:00am and 58 when I left at 10:30 or so.
Road: The paved portion up until FR 24 is totally fine. The first couple miles of the unpaved forest road lulled me into thinking the road would be smooth the entire way into the National Park entrance, but after that the road gets sections that are very potholed. Luckily there's an obvious path cars are taking to avoid the worst, but it gets VERY bumpy the closer you get to Staircase. I think any car could make it unless they were super low to the ground.
Trail: The trail is in good condition! It was wet in places, mainly where water was draining on the western side of the river. There's one area with an old blow down about a quarter mile up the Skokomish River Trail, but there's been a path made to help get around it.
Fall Colors: Lots of yellow along the trail! It seemed like the larger big leaf maples have already lost most of their leaves, but there's still plenty around. There were also quite a few mushrooms! Some of the logs even looked like people had scraped some off.
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