Trip Report

A party of three hiked this as a Mountaineers Olympia Branch day hike on Friday, September 15, 2023.  The weather was beautiful with a cloudless sky, low humidity, occasional breezes, and temperature about 80F.  Ours was the only car at the trailhead, and we saw no other hikers on the trail.  I had a similar experience on a Sunday in mid-August.  (See attached link to that report at wta.org.)

From the east side trailhead, the trail gains elevation on a series of switchbacks, passing through majestic Doug fir, cedar and hemlock. At the open pass where the trail follows a decommissioned road, many wildflowers were still in bloom. A few hundred yards beyond this, a tree of >32” diameter is down across the trail at a steep angle. It has been notched out underneath, allowing hikers to crawl under. A stub on top provides a good handhold for climbing over. Another stub provides a foothold, but it is a stretch to reach it.

A few hundred feet past this fallen tree is an active bee or yellow jacket hive in the base of a tree on the downhill side. This has been flagged with orange tape on saplings on either side. A few hundred yards and a pair of switchbacks past that is a tree about 2 feet in diameter, in the trail and in line with it. The stubs on the uphill side have been trimmed and hikers can squeeze by. The top of the divide is two short and one long switchbacks above this. Some of that section is getting brushy and a lot of it is devil’s club.

The divide is about 3,450’ elevation. On the west side of the divide, around 3,000’, the trail is getting a bit brushy. At about 2.750’, there is a tree across the trail diagonally. The lower part can be stepped over without much difficulty. Descending here, we came face-to-face with a tree with an expression from Edvard Munch's "The Scream".

The trail in the forest at the edge of the meadow on the east side of the lake is becoming quite brushy, as is the trail below the edge of the forest into the meadow. Along some of this, it may be difficult to see the ground, and the footing can be treacherous with irregular melon-sized rocks. The trail along the lake has some hip-high grass. Although it was about noon, we got quite wet from dew still on the grass on this warm, sunny and low-humidity day.

The lake level was a few feet below the high water line. Aside from the dried mud ring, it was a very nice reflecting pool for the sky and surrounding mountain forest. We saw some fish. We continued past the lake, uphill, past a log on the trail where most people have detoured around it on the downhill side. Footing there is not good, and erosion is developing. We continued on generally good trail a half mile to the west end trailhead at Forest Road 2372.

We turned around and hiked the reverse route back to our vehicle at the Church Creek trailhead. There is still quite a bit of standing old growth and some really big Doug fir and cedar, and many wildflowers in the understory and the berry patches on the east side and the open pass east of and below the divide.

According to “Day Hiking the Olympic Peninsula, second edition, and the Washington Trails Association website, it is 3.2 miles one way from Church Creek trailhead to the lake, and another half mile to the west end trailhead, for a total of 3.7 each way and 7.4 miles round trip. Both sides of the divide have dramatic topography with sheer drops into gorges alongside the trail, and large fallen trees bridging deep chasms. There is about 1,600’elevation change on the east side and 900’ on the west side, made manageable by the switchbacks. There is much evidence of serious trail work, cutting out huge fallen trees, on both sides of the divide. Some of the issues noted above will be addressed on an upcoming Mountaineers Olympia Branch stewardship trip.

We drove in from Forest Road 23 to 2361, then 2361-600 to the east side (Church Creek) trailhead. There is a gate on FR 2361 which usually closes around October 1st. We rode in a Subaru with about 8” of ground clearance and negotiated the water bars without scraping.

There is no signage at the west (Satsop Lake) trailhead, but it is recognizable. It is just north of a right-angle bend in FR 2372 and an intersection with a rough road leading to the southeast. Just south of the trailhead and across the road from the trailhead are parking areas where people have obviously camped.  There is no gate on this approach.  The roads (FR 23 and FR 2372) were suitable for passenger cars, cautiously driven, at the time of this report.

This trail is out of cell phone range, and don’t expect passersby who might assist if in trouble. Also, there are few places by the trail with enough water to pump or collect, so bring all you plan on drinking.

Just wanted to post this in response to the last trip report, I had no issue finding the trail head. I definitely recommend using GAIA or something comparable, Google or Apple
maps won’t get you there. Go up Wynoochee Valley Rd then hang a right on FS 2372, it takes you right to the west trailhead. The road was passable, but there are some big dips in the road that might be difficult for a lower clearance vehicle. My CRV did fine, so definitely don’t need an off road vehicle to get up there though.

The trail itself needs some TLC (see pics). The trail around the lake is almost overgrown, and up at the top of the ridge the trail is still passable but quickly getting to the point where it won’t be. My dogs and I did a little over 4 miles, up to the top of the ridge and back. Outside of passing a granddad teaching his grandson how to fish at Satsop Lake, we had the trail to ourselves. Lots of solitude, lots of big cedar and fir trees that haven’t been touched in probably a century or more. If you’re into big views, this may not be the trail for you, but if you want to have some time alone in the forest, it ain’t too shabby.

I would not recommend attempting to find this trailhead. I approached from the west side coming up N23 from the Google maps and approximately 2 mi before the trailhead the road was completely impassable, even by walking. We had to turn around and got completely lost on our way home. Google maps tried to route us back home on a different way that we came in. If you are using Google maps, many of the forest roads were impassable and dead ended where the map said roads existed, and we spent an extra 4 hours trying to get out. We were told by the ranger not to rely on Google maps, so maybe a paper map may have been more helpful in this situation.

Beautiful summer Sunday afternoon hike on Church Creek trail.  No other hikers seen on trail.  Forest Roads 23 & 2361 clear except for some edges, and suitable for all vehicles to last fork at Church Creek access road.  From there to trailhead, 2.1 miles with 28 waterbars.  We got over without scraping in a Honda CRV.  I would not recommend a lower clearance passenger car.

Trail in good shape to the Satsop side of the divide, getting a little brushy in places.  About a mile and a half in, a bit past the pass and rock wall where the trail meets the decommissioned road, at about 2,960' elevation, there is a tree, about 31" diameter, fallen across the trail at a steep angle.  On the high side, it has been notched out underneath for crawling room, but devil's club was growing there.  We removed it.  There is a stub and foot hold to facilitate climbing over it.    A few hundred yards further up, and before the watershed divide, another tree is down lengthwise on the trail. The stubs have been trimmed to make enough room to squeeze by on the uphill side of it.

At the divide, the "huge double-pistol-butted hemlock" mentioned in "Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula" by Craig Romano, 2nd ed., still stands on the downhill side of the trail.  On the other side of the divide, there is a small clearing on hiker's left descending, with a few fallen logs, which apparently is a vernal pool at other times of the year, but was dry.  We had a snack there and headed back out. 

Never found the actual trail head -  directions given on this site were completely wrong. Found directions AFTER THE FACT on explorehoodcanal.com which were far more detailed and probably would've actually gotten us to the trail head. Spent over one and a half hours trying to get to the trail to just be disappointed. :(