Ashland Lakes, Beaver Plant — Friday, May. 8, 2026

I headed up the Mountain Loop Highway north of Granite Falls and turned off on FS Road 4020 for 2.7 miles, then turned right on to FS Road 4021. There is a sign here for Bear and Pinnacle Lakes. The FS roads are in good shape with new gravel from last year. Only a couple of potholes. You can tell when you leave the Forest Service section of Road 2021 and enter DNR land, the many potholes are back. In a short distance I turned left (not signed) and headed up the spur road about 1/4 mile to the Ashland Lakes Trailhead parking lot. This spur road is in very bad shape, as the uphill section has deep ruts to drive through. I took it slowly and made it up in my Outback. There was one pickup truck parked near the restroom. The restroom is closed and has a padlock on the door. The DNR has a sign on the door saying it is closed due to Covid. I think it is because a septic tank pumper truck could not get up the spur road to pump it out.

I had first hiked up to Ashland Lakes forty years ago in 1986. The trail to the lakes was built by the DNR from 1972 to 1975. The lakes are in an old growth forest. At the trailhead there is a kiosk with info and a map of the area. The trail starts on an old logging road and crosses over Black Creek on a steel truss foot bridge. Further along the trail turns left and heads uphill into the conifer forest now on very rocky roadbed. The road ends and you are on a regular trail, but this trail is anything but regular. It has hundreds of feet of 2 X 12 wood plank boardwalks above the ground over wet and bogging areas to walk on. You gain about 400' getting to the lakes. There are some rocky sections, a few switchbacks and one steep set of stairs. Along the way I passed a pile of 4 X 4's for some future work on the trail. I then got to the first trail junction. I went left on to the side trail going south down to Beaver Plant Lake. This trail has some wood planks too. There is a new looking kiosk with camping info and a map. Near the lake are some camping sites, one had three metal campfire rings. I then hiked the trail down to the lake shore. DNR has a wood boardwalk along the lake shore. It was fogging at the lake with a cold wind blowing. I then headed back up to the main trail. Before getting to the junction, I spotted a side trail going west so decided to check it out. In about 40 yards I got to a big old growth Red Cedar tree. Next to it laying on the ground was a metal framework for hauling Sanicans. The DNR would fly in via helicopter Sanicans for restrooms. Bring them in in the Spring and fly the full ones out in the Fall. They do not have outhouses at Ashland Lakes. I did not see any Sanicans on my hike.

From the junction I headed west for Upper Ashland Lake. More boardwalks to hike along the way over the wetlands. I then got to the junction with the Bald Mountain Trail that goes from Ashland Lakes to Bald Mtn. and Cutthroat Lakes 7 miles to the east. This trail was built by a Boy Scout troop from Lake City in Seattle in the mid 1970's. I could see over by the shoreline where beavers had chewed on some trees and now the trees were dead.  I then got to the place where the boardwalk is under water due to the higher lake level from the busy beavers with a dam over the outlet of the lake. This is where I turned around. Back down the trail I found a good log for my lunch time bench out of the wind. After eating I hiked the Ashland Lakes trail back to the parking lot. Part way down I met a young couple hiking up the trail and had a nice chat with them. They were about 40 years younger than me, I'm 77. So, I told them they could still be hiking up this trail 40 years from now.

The only wildlife I saw was one woodpecker and a Douglas Squirrel. Just the two other hikers, so now crowds like the Heather Lake or Lake 22 Trails. So, if you are tired of the conga line of hikers going to those lakes, try these ones instead.

Hopefully the DNR can work on getting the sunken boardwalks above the waterline at Upper Ashland Lakes. Also use some of our Discover Pass money to fix the spur road to get up to the parking lot. A D-6 bulldozer would to the trick.

Keep on hikin', George