Lower South Fork Skokomish River — Friday, Oct. 12, 2001

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

Decided to try one last Olympic peninsula hike before the weather gets bad. Wanted to do the upper trail (873.1) but the wildlife gate was closed which meant it would be a 4 mile hike just to get to the trailhead. We decided to go back to the lower trailhead. The beginning of the hike climbs a little and then decends steeply to the river. Actually the trail hardly goes by the river except in a few places. The highlights of this trail are some nice big old-growth trees and some nice side creeks with some small waterfalls. Went to the damaged bridge (about 3.5 miles in) and turned around. A nice side trip on the way there was the steel bridge over the Skokomish. This is a bridge originally built for a railroad in the 1920s. The deck is now a one lane car bridge. The bridge is over 400 feet above the river valley and its pretty spectacular. Check it out if you get the chance.