My 15 yr. old son and I squeezed this roughly 7 mile 1,200 elev. gain/loss loop in on this cloudy October Saturday afternoon, hiking the Ridge, Rock, and Lost Lake Trails. It took us about just less than 3 hours with stops only for photos. (He hiked behind me, because I’m the slower hiker.) We started at the last corner of Cleator Road, just before its terminus. Ridge trail is literally right there.

We headed south on Ridge Trail until the junction with Rock Trail. Going from this direction on Rock Trail gives you the advantage of traveling down the steep staircases. There are 15 of them with only one going up. It’s a lot of steps. I’m glad we went down them, and not up.  Rock Trail is beautiful and unique. Once you’ve descended the bulk of the stairs you hike past some huge and impressive rock wall features. You continue on winding through massive moss and fern covered boulders, deciduous trees, and various ground covering. Some of the trees still have green leaves, others are shedding their colorful leaves. This has left a beautiful colorful carpet of fallen leaves covering the trail. (I was a little surprised there wasn’t great fall foliage in the trees, rather it’s all on the ground!)

Once onto the Lost Lake trail we headed north. There were peekaboo views of the Lost Lake as we progressed. This section of trail had a fun variety of mushrooms. There were even decaying mushrooms. After a mile or so the Lost Lake trail opens up to more of a road trail, (not my favorite.) We followed this trail about three miles until the turnoff to the Ridge Trail.

Ridge Trail ascends steeply for a bit and then levels out to a gradual climb. It doesn’t take long to get to the ridge. And appropriately named, you’ll stay on the ridge nearly the entire trail. There are no bay/ocean views but there are viewpoints to the east. Unfortunately for my son and I, it was too cloudy and foggy to see anything. On a clear day I can imagine the views are pretty great! BUT the foggy conditions did provide a fun creepy Halloweeny feel. Tis the season! This is a ridge trail that is unique to any other I’ve been on, as you’re in the forest the entire time. And it definitely keeps you engaged as you wind between trees, rocks, steep ridge edges, more mushrooms, ferns, and Salal bushes as you ascend and descend along the ridge.

This was an awesome loop hike and one I would repeat. I was surprised we only saw one other person the entire time. But I also very much appreciated the peace and privacy with my son. No wildflowers, but the large variety of mushrooms definitely made up for that. No bugs. There were two and a half blowdowns on the Ridge Trail, (one only partially on the trail, hence the half.) The only wildlife we saw was a rat scurrying away while on the Ridge Trail.

The road is in a little bumpy, but any vehicle could make it. Overall these trails are in great condition with minimal muddy spots. Be careful of the large rocks you have to travel on on the Ridge Trail, they are a little slick. Enjoy, these trails are gorgeous right now.

The road up to Cyrus Gates must have been recently graded because it’s pure perfection haha. Not a single pothole to be found, and there have been times where this road has had deep ruts, big rock outcroppings, and just general terrible conditions. But today was the best I’ve seen any forest road! Otherwise not much of note. Trail is in the usual early summer overgrowth stage. Bugs are annoying but not awful yet!

Our group decided to try a different route from the last time we hiked this area. We parked at the overlook at the end of Cleator Road and took the Rock Trail southwest from the lot. Descending the several sets of steep stairs and hiking along the impressive sandstone outcrops, we followed this trail down to the Lost Lake Trail. We took the Lost Lake Trail, with a side trip to and around Fragrance Lake, back up to Cleator Road and then followed it  to the parking lot. My tracking app showed a total distance of 5.7 miles. 

This is definitely an impressive trail, traversing underneath towering sandstone walls in a lush green forest with ferns, some wildflowers, moss-covered trees....all mixed into an emerald green trailscape. Two of us in the group are geologists and I have to admit that we stopped several times to admire the ancient history written into the sandstone outcrops. An interesting feature in those bluffs is the occurrence of solution cavities (large holes in the rock face often called tafoni), some several feet across. 

The trail is in good shape and has enough moderately steep ascents and descents to provide a good workout. Wildflowers in bloom right now include Pacific bleeding heart, candy flower, false soloman's seal, large-leaved avens and a few trillium. Fragrance Lake is nice, quiet and shady place for lunch. 

Bugs, mostly gnats but some mosquitos, were bad at the parking lot and were annoying at various points along the trails. Have seen much worse but they were still annoying.

This is a nice area with lots of route options for exploring it and is a nice representation of the forests that hug the Puget Sound. We encountered several other groups of hikers during the hike, for a total of perhaps a dozen and a half or so. The parking lot at the Cleator Road overlook will accommodate about 25 cars and there is a toilet. 

If interested in more photos and some route maps, checkout the video link below.