Grand Pass, Cameron Creek, Cameron Pass, Lost Pass Primitive, Dosewallips River Road, Upper Gray Wolf River to Gray Wolf Pass, Lower Gray Wolf River, Three Forks & Elk Mountain to Maiden Peak — Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

You would think, even starting from Seattle, that a 4:30am wake-up would mean an early start on the trail. By the time we caught the 5:45 Edmonds Kingston Ferry, had a mandatory breakfast at the Oak Table in Sequim, picked up a few bear cans at the WIC in Port Angeles, and drove the additional hour to the Obstruction Point trailhead, it was 11:15 when we finally shouldered our overly provisioned packs and headed down the Grand Pass trail. The views are spectacular from the beginning, as the trail head is at 6100 ft. The first day of our 45.5 mile loop took us through the Grand Valley, up Grand Pass, on to the Cameron Creek Trail, and in to Cameron Basin where we camped near the waterfall in the North end of the Upper Cameron. We found the trail to this point to be in fine shape. The first few switchbacks down from Grand Pass certainly are steep and covered in loose rock, and the entire plunge down to the Cameron Creek Trail is pretty jarring. The ever changing viewes more than made up for this. Our Upper Cameron camp was bug free, and next to one of the prettiest streams I've seen. Day two took us over Cameron Pass, Lost Pass, down to the Dosewallips trail, up Grey Wolf Pass, down to the Grey Wolf River, and finally to Falls Camp. Again the views were amazing. The trail was in nice shape except for the portion of the Grey Wolf River trail between the Grey Wolf basin and Falls Camp which has quite a few fallen trees, and a couple of iffy log crossings (but still quite passable). From the junction at the Dosewallips through to the end of the loop there were quite a few hornets and yellow jackets buzzing around. They didn't seem to be at all interested in us, but one of our party did get stung on his leg while pushing though some brush along the trail. There were also signs of bears all around, and it was in the upper portion of the Grey Wolf River trail that another member of the party had a fairly close encounter with one. Falls camp was also very nice, bug free, and with several logs and rounds to sit and cook on. Day three was a shorter hike up to the Deer Park car campground via the Three Forks trail. The grade of the trail was significantly easier than the previous two days. The old growth forest surrounding the Grey Wolf River trail was a nice change of scenery. Be warned that there are several guide books out there stating there is a water pump at Deer Park. It is no longer there. There was a very small stream still trickling just a hundred feet West of the ranger station, otherwise, there is no water between the three forks junction and Obstruction Point, a distance of almost 14 miles. Unfortunately, day four found us mostly in the clouds. The 7.5 miles back to Obstruction point was a very nice alpine meadow hike, but I understand that the views are commanding. The drop off from the trail was fairly intimidating in places, and together with the clouds, I was glad to be hiking with others. A good description of this hike can be found in a Back Packer Magazine book that I believe is called Trekking Washington, Trek 23, The Grand Loop.