I have looked at hiking 6 Ridge for many years and finally decided it was time. We dropped my truck off at Staircase and than my wife took me to the trail head of the Lower South Fork of the Skokomish River. This trail was pretty mellow and well maintained. The only navigation issues were after the ford, when there seemed to be trails going every which away. Most of the time I guessed right and made it to the end without much problem. The upper trail starts just across the parking lot from the end of the lower trail. The first few miles there were easy as well. I spent the first night at the second crossing of the Skokomish. There were several sites to choose from, and at least two of them would easily accommodate a hammock, which is what I use.

After a couple more miles the trail started up. And apparently the trail builders did not have much use for switchbacks. There were a few, but mostly it just went straight up, or so it seemed. Near the top the trail passes through a few meadows and then a small tarn/lake just below Sundown Pass. Starting a couple of miles below the pass the huckleberries started to be pretty profuse. And they continued that way until part way down to 7 Stream a couple of days later. The trail on the South Fork was mostly easy to follow with only a few trees down and some brushy areas.

From Sundown Pass the trail descends a bit and joins the Graves Creek Trail, ascending first to Sundown Lake and then to 6 Ridge Pass. This part of the trail was also easy to follow although a bit overgrown. The berries continued to be plentiful.

From 6 Ridge Pass you could see McGravey Lake in the distance. The trail drops steeply from the pass and at times would nearly disappear in some of the meadows. If finally leveled out a bit, working its way across the upper bowl until passing McGravey Lake. This was the destination for night two. It took a while, but I did find a place to hang up above the lake. The lake was warm enough for a quick swim.

I thought day 2 was hard, but day 3 put it to shame. The trail is seldom level for long. It takes turning ascending and descending, usually pretty steeply. And the brush frequently obscured the trail. As a result I had to really concentrate to stay on the trail. There were a few muddy meadows, but now as many as I had feared. There were also some logs across the trail. But, if you paid close attention, the trail was always easy to follow. There were quite a few bugs doing their thing, but the only ones that paid any attention to me were the horse flies. And it was not uncommon to have one or two of them providing an escort through their designated patrol area. I escaped without a bite though, even without repellant or a headnet. 

A bit after Camp Belview, which appears just to be a couple of flat spots beside the trail, and just off of a meadow, the trail finally hits the top of the ridge where it stays as the ridge descends down to the North Fork Skokomish. The first couple of miles of this were the best part of the trek. There was a lot of visibility. Periodically I could see Lake Cushman with Mt Rainier in the background. The ridge top is a series of knobs that the trail goes over and then down into the vale between them. So, if you are not going up, you are going down.

Eventually you are just going down, mostly through heavy brush, sometimes over my head. The tread was very loose and steep, with hidden surprises under the brush, so much care was needed on the descent. Eventually you get to the switchbacks. 66 of them by my count. The last one brings you to the north fork just a short distance from 7 Stream. There is camping on both sides, but I forded and camped on the north bank. Then it was just the 6 miles on the main trail to Staircase and a drive home.

There were some wildflowers still blooming, but a month earlier would have been better for the flowers. I saw more bear grass, unfortunately all past their bloom, than I had ever seen before. On the other hand the berries were amazing. The bugs were merely a minor annoyance. The solitude was great. I only saw 4 people the whole trip until the last few miles into Staircase. Navigation issues were minor so long as you pay close attention. The hiking was strenuous, at least for this 68 year old. But the trip was well worth the effort. 

I traversed Six Ridge from the North Fork of the Skokomish, to its junction with the Graves Creek trail, and then descended the Graves Creek trail to the Graves Creek campground.

After fording Seven Stream, the trail through the forest and along the ridge was pretty easy to follow. It was very bushy, so you couldn’t always see the trail (or your feet), but the trail was there. Eventually the trail goes across the top of the ridge, which is very pretty. I crossed a few snow fields when nearing the top of the ridge, but was able to make out the trail on the other side.

Near the high point of the ridge, there is a sign for Lake Success one way and Belview the other. I wasn’t sure which way the trail continued, but knew I needed to get to Belview to camp. I descended the direction pointing towards Belview, and camped at the first spot I saw (I was tired). It turns out the nearest stream is at least a half mile downhill from the first site. I’m not even sure if that was “Belview” proper.

Later that evening, a group came through with a Green Trails map that showed the offshoot trail to Lake Success, and I learned I needed to stay on the trail I was on to continue on Six Ridge. Neither my USGS Caltopo map nor my National Geographic Illustrated map showed this side trail to Lake Success. They ended up camping on the far side of the stream, a bit below the trail, where I had noticed what seemed like some sites in the forest.

The following morning, after about 20 minutes of walking, I reached what may be actual Belview- some prominent campsites near a stream in a meadow, with sort of views. After Belview, the Six Ridge trail stays below the ridge, crossing through a series of meadows before going uphill towards Six Ridge pass. The meadows are pretty, but wet and hard to navigate. I guessed right all but once, and was quickly able to return to the trail.

After Six Ridge pass, you get good views of Mount Olympus and the trail is easy to follow. I got water at a stream flowing out of Lake Sundown, crossed a few more meadows, and then started heading down the Graves Creek drainage.

Between the junction with Sundown Pass and the Graves Creek trailhead, I counted 107 blowdowns. Some were very large logs, and I had to take my pack off and pull it through. There was also a lot of mud in boggy sections, which went up to my ankles at times. I ended up walking through both fords with my shoes on to clean them off. The beta to go uphill at the large washout is correct, but I initially went too high. I tried to go back and build some cairns to show where people should turn from going uphill and actually cross the washout.

Despite the obstacles, the Graves Creek trail is very pretty, and I will likely return to spend some more time at some of the waterfalls I hurried past.

This trip was part of a bigger loop involving Enchanted Valley, O’Neil pass, and First Divide. But I’ve focused on Six Ridge and Graves Creek here because they were the hardest sections to follow.

We went on a 5 day backpacking trip to a few lakes beginning and ending at the Wynoochee Pass TH. On day 1 we drove to the TH and hiked to Sundown Lake. Day 2 we set up camp at McGravey Lakes and attempted to get to Lake Success and then back to our camp. Days 3 and 4 we did some off trail work, and on day 5 we hiked out.

The Wynoochee Pass trail was in good condition. Right at the beginning, the old road has been washed out, so there was a little bit of a sketchy work around, but it was definitely doable. From there to the junction with the Graves Creek trail, we had a few fallen trees that were easy to get over, and some that took a bit more effort (especially for those of us vertically challenged). There was one spot just after a river crossing that had a bit of a rock ledge to climb over, but there were enough footholds to get up without too much difficulty.

From the Graves Creek junction to the SF Skokomish junction, the trail was a bit more brushy, but there were plenty of salmonberries and a few huckleberries to make up for it. There were some larger downed trees that took a bit more work to get over.

Six Ridge trail was fairly easy to follow. There were a few meadows where we lost the trail briefly, but found it fairly quickly. A GPS with the trail on it was handy to have for those instances. There was one patch of snow across the trail that was a bit sketchy to cross before it had softened, but it had melted out by the time we hiked out. I lost count of the number downed trees, but none of them were impassable.

The Lake Success waytrail was a little tricky to find. At the Lake Success waytrail junction, it ended up being the trail that had some logs across it, not the sketchy steep slope that looks heavily trafficked. We followed the waytrail close to a third of the way to Lake Success. It was a little bit tricky to see at times, but between our GPS and finding cut branches, we were able to keep on the trail. However, it was super slow going so we didn't make it all the way to the lake.

Bugs were horrendous on this trip. We woke up to mosquitoes, had black flies, horse flies, and deer flies follow us around throughout the day, and switched back to mosquitoes when we made camp. 

Wildflowers and mountain views were spectacular, although some of the mountain views got a bit hazy towards the end of our trip (likely from smoke). Huckleberries and blueberries are just starting, and salmonberries are still going strong.

We started up Graves Creek around noon on July 24. There are many downed trees to crawl over or under, but fairly easy to get past. There is a bad gully at about 3 miles. If you look up the gully you will see disturbed soil that indicates a better way to get out of the gully and back on the trail. The first ford at 3.5 miles is directly across Graves Creek; don't cross Success Creek. The trail is always brushy, but the worst section is between the two fords. It is easy to miss a switchback (we did) and end up off route in the forest. The trail is hard to see, but pretty distinct, so you'll notice when you are not on it. We camped at the second ford the first night and watched Juncos catching emerging bugs. Neither of the fords are difficult.

The next day we started up the hill to Sundown Lake. The grade is not difficult, but the trail is very brushy. When we broke into the meadow where the South Fork Skok trail junction is it was filled with Beargrass and Avalanche lilies, which were blooming all the way to the eastern edge of Six Ridge. We took a break at Sundown Lake and saw salamanders and nice sized trout swimming. We met a couple of fastpackers descending between the lake and Six Ridge Pass. They had planned a loop up the Skok and down the Quinault, but couldn't route find fast enough to maintain the pace they needed. At Six Ridge Pass we could see Mt. Rainier.

We dropped down to McGravey Lakes for lunch in the shade of a twin Mountain Hemlock. Swifts were streaking across the lake, leaving tiny wakes where their beaks touched the water. After a lot of up and down and several wet meadows we arrived at Belview, where we camped the second night. Lots of bear sign, but we didn't see any. After Belview there is no water until you get to Seven Stream.

After Belview and more up and down the trail hits the actual ridge and runs it for a couple of glorious miles. There were two small snowfields on the north side, but the snow was soft and disappearing quickly. The trail passes in and out of forested sections alternating with meadows. The logs from Six Ridge Pass to the eastern drop-off were cut by a WTA BCRT (thanks Becca and Martin!) in 2019, and this was the easiest part of the trip, but still brushy. As we descended to Seven Stream I counted 25 logs on the trail, but nothing that slowed us down. (We were going slow already.)

The last night we camped at Seven Stream and watched a female Harlequin duck and her brood working the riffles in the Skokomish.

In the morning we started the easy hike down to Staircase, and took the Staircase Rapids Nature Trail to get to the campground. It was awesome, especially the 14 foot diameter Cedar tree. Don't miss it. 

This trip could easily be done fast packing in a day. But it's a great example of a trail worth savoring by going slow enough to smell the flowers.

This was a loop trip starting at the Graves Creek trailhead, heading up Graves Creek to Six Ridge, into the Skokomish, over First Divide to the Duckabush, and over O'Neil Pass and down into the Quinault.

Graves Creek trail was not too hard to follow, but had about a dozen very large trees to climb over, under, or around. As others have reported, the ford of Graves Creek near Success Creek was difficult to find. Look carefully for a cairn on the far bank, about 50-60 feet downstream from where Success Creek comes in and the trail exits the forest to the bank. The trail on the far side is very indistinct, and heads very steeply up. Conditions got better after the junction with Wynoochee Pass trail and the switchbacks up to Six Ridge.

Trail along Six Ridge varies in condition as well - sometimes quite good, sometime a very narrow boot track. Easily lost in the many meadows, particularly the one at McGravey Lakes (the ponds about a mile past Six Ridge Pass) and another just after Bellevue Camp. It's a difficult trail in general, as it bounds up and down along the ridge, rarely contouring. Quite brushy in spots, too. However, not very many downed trees once up on the ridge, which was a relief to me.

About 2 miles past Bellevue, as the trail finally starts to descend (with a couple of false starts!) conditions get better, and it's a good trail by the switchbacks down and down and down, to the Skokomish. Lovely camp right at Seven Stream and easy rock hop crossing, at least this time.

Trail up the Skokomish is in wonderful shape, up and over First Divide. Camp at Home Sweet Home is sweet, indeed. A momma bear warned me off at the huckleberry fields right below HSW as her cub scampered up a tree. Backed off for 15 mins or so and she was too busy eating to give me a glance the 2nd time I passed.

Continued good trail conditions down to Upper Duckabush, then some rougher trail here and there but generally good (and another easy crossing at the Duckabush) all the way to Marmot Lake. The camps there were all full (busy week in ONP!) and I was booked at Hart Lake, another mile and 500' up. Hart lake would be beautiful in good weather, I think - it was mostly socked in, and gusty mist/rain alternating my entire afternoon, night, and morning there. There is only one very protected site, so if that's taken, you're going to have to do your best. Ranger later told me that the 'capacity' here is 3 parties, which would be OK in good weather, but not so in a summer storm. You might have to look elsewhere, as a party of 2 did that came in after me.

On and over O'Neil pass trail is great, and views were even good in the rain and fog. Far side of the pass, the trail got rougher and very brushy. Quite difficult for a few miles, and more blow-downs. However, I ran into a trail crew working in the upper Quinault valley, and they said it was on their list, so it might be better - soon.

Upper crossing of White Creek was easy, down lower on the Quinault trail, where it re-crosses the same creek, was a boots-off wade (though it had now rained for 2 days, so was running high). Usual great trail all the way down the Quinault (bear wandering placidly around the middle of all the folks camped in Enchanted Valley, completely unafraid of us humans).

Great trip, and one that had been on mind mind for years, so nice to finally complete it! Have fun out there.