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Hiking Guide

Wynoochee Pass to Sundown Lake

Wynoochee Pass to Sundown Lake

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

47.5124, -123.5451 Map & Directions

Length: 11.0 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,200 feet
Highest Point: 3,850 feet
Calculated Difficulty About Calculated Difficulty: Hard

Sundown Lake as seen from the west side. Photo by Rebecca Wanagel. Full-size image

Dogs not allowed
Lakes

Parking Pass/Entry Fee

None

Take the Wynoochee Pass trail over Wynoochee Pass onto the Sundown Lake trail, where you can continue past Sundown Pass to beautiful Sundown Lake. Continue reading

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33 trip reports for this trail

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Hiking Wynoochee Pass to Sundown Lake

This route to Sundown Lake starts at the Wynoochee Pass trailhead. Hikers climb to Wynoochee Pass 2.6 miles in. (The first 0.5 mile of this trail is in Olympic National Forest; the next 2.1 miles of the trail continues into Olympic National Park.) They then descend to the junction with the Graves Creek Primitive Trail and Sundown Lake trail in another 1.2 miles. From there, take a right to climb again to another junction, this time with the Upper South Fork Skokomish River trail, in 1.1 miles. Take the left at the fork here to reach Sundown Lake in just 0.3 mile.

Wynoochee Pass has previously been worked on by WTA crews, and has had a lot of maintenance work done by the Gray Wolf Trail Crew to keep it in good shape.

Note that Olympic National Park backcountry camping permits are required to camp at the lake, which can be obtained on the Recreation.gov website.

Toilet Information

No toilet at trailhead

More information about toilets

WTA worked here in 2018!

Hike Description Written by
Multiple authors contributed to this report, WTA Community

Wynoochee Pass to Sundown Lake

Map & Directions

Trailhead

Co-ordinates: 47.5124, -123.5451 Open in Google Maps

Before You Go

See weather forecast

Parking Pass/Entry Fee

None

WTA Pro Tip: Save a copy of our directions before you leave! App-based driving directions aren't always accurate and data connections may be unreliable as you drive to the trailhead.

Getting There

From Olympia, drive north on Highway 101 towards Shelton for 19 miles. Exit the highway towards Matlock and travel approximately 15 miles on Dayton-Matlock Road.

From Matlock, continue straight at the junction onto the Matlock-Deckerville Road. Continue 8.8 miles, and turn right onto Cougar-Smith Road. Proceed 5.5 miles to Forest Service Road 22 to a major intersection, where you will continue straight onto Road 2270 and drive north of Wynoochee Lake to the 400 spur near the Olympic National Park boundary.

The Wynoochee Pass trailhead is off the 2270-400 spur. A high-clearance vehicle is recommended to reach this trailhead.

It is worth noting that while infrequent, the Cougar-Smith road is an active logging road and can occasionally be closed without warning. Here is an alternate approach that avoids this road.

From Highway 12, drive one mile west of Montesano and turn north on Wynoochee Valley Road. Proceed approximately 34 miles on the Wynoochee Valley Road (FS Road 22) to a major intersection. At this intersection continue straight ahead (north) on FS Road 2270, a left will take you to the Wynooochee Dam and Coho Campground and a right will take you to the Satsop Work Center. Follow FS Road 2270 11.7 miles to the FS Spur Road #400 (2270-400). Take a right and follow 1.5 miles to the trailhead. Approximate drive time from Montesano to trailhead 2.25 hours.

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Trailhead

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

Wynoochee Pass Trail (#874)

Olympic National Forest, Olympic National Park

Guidebooks & Maps

Olympic Mountains Trail Guide (Robert Wood - Mountaineers Books)

Day Hiking: Olympic Peninsula (Romano - Mountaineers

Green Trails 166 Mt. Christie

Custom Correct Enchanted Valley - Skokomish

Buy the Green Trails Mt Christie No. 166 map

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Wynoochee Pass to Sundown Lake

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