This is a really beautiful easy old growth forest walk. The river is powerful and photogenic. 3.2 mile loop.

We spent the day driving to Hood Canal area from Seattle and did two short hikes: Copper Creek and Staircase Rapids. This was my first time to the former and my third to the latter.

Copper Creek is absolutely gorgeous right now. The creek itself is uncannily beautiful and offers just as many stops as the Staircase area Skokomish views. It's bright green and the rainforest canopy keeps hikers cool throughout the trail all the way to the very end.

The "lollipop" description on the WTA page is debatable. We turned left hoping for a challenge, and noticed that coming back down on the right felt steeper. A debate for the ages! Still, a cool hike that one can do a loop along a ridge as the reward for all the elevation gain.

We took our time and ended up spending three and a half hours on the trail. Had I gone solo it probably would have been closer to two and a half. I'm appreciative of my friend, who wanted to dip toes in water and spend time taking photos and enjoying nature! We saw plenty of trillium at higher altitude, bunchberry dogwood, and even some of the bear grass was blooming.

One thing to note for folks who are less-than-flexible: the trail does have a lot of trees down across it, including old growth that requires some ducking under. It isn't prohibitive but could be a bit awkward and painful depending on your body size/type. I do appreciate that there has been maintenance done on much of the trail and it's relatively a blast to get around the trees.

We closed with a visit to the PACKED Staircase Rapids. Just a few weeks ago I visited last and the place was empty, but it's clearly National Park season again. Still, we did manage to park and took the trail without major issue. It did feel a bit claustrophobic though. I am looking forward to revisiting the area in the rain and doing some of the longer backpacking that's available.

If you eat Rainbow Bunny Droppings, you are the devil.  (When you leave your litter on the trail.)

The road in was rough, not as bad as a month ago, but still pretty bad.  Take it slow.

I got started early, and I'm glad I did.  At 7:30 a.m., the lower lot was already full.  I've never seen that before...although one guy was taking 2 spaces.  I saw as I walked by he was struggling to get his truck into one space after talking to a ranger.  At the signpost for the trail, there was a notice to keep an eye open for a couple of missing hikers.  There was a search effort going on, and I hope the 2 women are OK.  It's too bad that this site and the Olympic National Park site are not more nimble with postings like the details of these missing hikers.  I usually check both sites before heading out, surely other people do the same.

On the first leg of the trip, the east side of the Staircase Rapids Loop, I only met a couple of hikers.  While I appreciate the rescue crews, they need some training on politeness.  One crew member wanted to interrogate me, when he was not properly sharing information.  He should have told me as much as he could about the missing hikers quickly, like where they were supposed to be hiking, when they were last seen, and when they were due.  Instead, he barked questions at me.  I looked for a sidearm, because he gave me the feeling he is used to packing a pistol when talking to JQPublic.  It was a very short conversation. 

Because of the missing hikers, I decided to move fast and not stop for many pictures.  My thinking was that I had twice met hikers who had turned the wrong way on the Rapids Loop and instead headed up the river, so not too lost as both times I redirected them.  (The park needs some better signage at the turn.)  I was also thinking that someone could easily slip down the hill while taking pictures of the river, so I kept my eyes on the down slope.  I marched to the 3.6 mile mark, pausing at the best photo spots to look around. I saw zero other hikers on this leg, which has never happened to me before, and I saw no sign of the missing hikers.

At the fork off to Flapjack Lake, I met some friendly campers who told me a couple of search groups had already come through, so I called off the marching.  I went about another mile up the trail.  At the 4.5 mile mark, I turned around and headed back to the trailhead.  On this return leg I passed over 60 hikers.  That's 4x the norm.  I guess the warnings that lots of people would be out for Memorial Day were correct!  Wow!  It's great to be part of the great unmasking; it is so nice to say hi and smile as people go by.  Of the 70 or so hikers, I only saw 2 masks and only one pair of hikers did not return my greeting.

I stopped for lunch at 3-mile log, which is really 3.25 miles up from the trailhead.  It's a nice spot as the top of the log is flat.  To stay dry, I sit on the garbage bag I always pack.  I picked up 3 pieces of litter, including the incredibly annoying Rainbow Bunny Droppings packaging; c'mon man.

On the last leg of the trip, the west side of Staircase Rapids, I only saw 4 other hikers.  I only walked the west side because I was thinking that the east side would have a jam if there were 70 people on the river trail.  The east side is 1000x better than the west side.  It's a lot nicer to walk up and back on the east side while avoiding the west side entirely.

Back at the parking lot, it was JAMMED!  It was the most full I have ever seen the lot, with every space taken and cars parked where they really should not have been.  On the drive out there were many cars still approaching, MANY!  People like to go to parks on Memorial Day Weekend. 

I walked 9 miles in 4 hours.  Great weather, nice day, many smiles!

Even though we'd only visited a couple weeks prior, a couple family members were visiting and we thought this would be an easy, accommodating trail for them. We were blown away in the difference in color and tone with the sun shining (as opposed to the gentle rain from our first visit). Highly recommend visiting regardless of the weather!

Nice easy hike, wide gravel covered trail and lots of nice views of the river and moss-covered trees. Slide Camp offers a little fording of streams to get to nice places for lunch off the beaten path. Little streams that offer a peaceful refuge. Very nice hike.