Three Forks, Upper Gray Wolf River to Gray Wolf Pass, Lower Gray Wolf River, Slab Camp Creek and Gray Wolf River & Deer Ridge — Thursday, Jul. 4, 2013

This was a 3 day, 3 night hike with two people (man and woman) in our mid-twenties. We took the ferry over the night before and stayed in Sequim camp ground so we could be up early and have a short drive to the WIC office in Port Angeles. The first day, we started out at 9:30 and hiked Three Forks trail and the Gray Wolf river trail to Falls Camp. Three Forks trail is lovely, well-maintained, and offers great views closer to the trail head. There's an abundance of wild flowers this time of year, too. It's not a trail with water sources, but it's short and (comparatively) lacking a lot of insect activity. It leads to Three Forks camp, which is also lovely and well-maintained. There is 2.7 miles of trail between Three Forks camp and Camp Ellis. This section of trail, to put it bluntly, is a nightmare right now. The section on the left side of the river, before the half-way foot bridge, has so many blow downs we stopped counting, and we lost the trail a few times going over and around the masses of downed trees. Our packs were light enough (17-20 lbs, depending on water) we were able to do the scrambling without losing too much time, but be prepared for scrambles that boarder on bushwhacking. I'd suggest tackling this portion in the morning before it gets too buggy. The good news is, after Camp Ellis, there are only about a dozen blow downs, and they're manageable with minimal effort. We really enjoyed the elevation gain from Camp Ellis to Falls Camp. There's a few sections with stunning waterfalls and plenty of blooming flowers and interesting plant and animal life. The best part about this trail is we had it all to ourselves (maybe the only thing those early blow downs were good for), so it was enjoyable. The shelter at Falls Camp is burned down, but there are still functional fire pits and established camp sites in good condition. On day 2, we left at 7 am for Gray Wolf Pass. The hike up to the pass isn't terribly steep, but we did take breathing breaks to admire the views on our way. We crossed the snow line around 9, and the first snow on the trail was at 5500 feet at a stream crossing. We navigated the patchy snow for about another half-mile until we reached a meadow. We stopped for a break in the meadow, where we saw several marmots and beautiful spring blooms. (There were also many flies, misquotes, and spiders.) At this point, we used the compass/topography map to navigate out of the meadow, and since the trail followed a stream bed up, we thought it was buried under snow and continued following the stream bed. The trail was hidden under a snow patch beside the stream bed, but instead of following the stream, it went up over a ridge line -- so we lost the trail for about an hour. When we found the trail again, we'd already tried to navigate several snow fields, and at about .5 miles from the pass, the trail became completely buried in a snow field. We were in the position of being unable to determine where the trail emerged. Not knowing the conditions on the other side, and already having had troubles finding the trail, we decided to turn around and make for Three Forks Camp that night. We made it into Three Forks at 7 pm and had ourselves a nice camp fire. On day 3, we decided to hike the Lower Gray Wolf River trail, connect to the Slab Creek Trail (838), and finished the loop by taking the Deer Ridge trail (846) back to the Deer Park campground. The lower gray wolf, leading to slide camp and camp Tony, is well-maintained, with about half a dozen manageable blow downs. We started at 9 and finished this section by noon, and we stopped for lunch at Camp tony. Camp Tony is the last good water source before the Deer Ridge and Slab Creek trail head, so stop and get water here. We wished we had decided to filter another 2 liters because slab creek and deer ridge are very dry trails with limited to no available water. Slab Creek trail and the lower Gray wolf trail are both very forested trails without a lot of views, but the benefit is that you don't have a lot of strenuous climbing. We talked to several hikers (a family and a group doing an over-night at Slide Camp), who chose these two trail sections because they're less demanding, shady, and still provide nice views of the surrounding mountains. We saw several groups of people (some with kids) day-hiking on the Slab Creek trail. Overall, this section of trail was well-maintained, enjoyable, and accessible to hikers of many skill levels. We reached Slab Creek trail head by 2 pm, and then we started across the Deer Ridge trail head, which leads from the Buckhorn wilderness area back into Olympic NP. We completed this trail by 7 pm. Of all the trails we hiked, Deer Ridge was by far the most physically taxing. There is no water at the trail head, and there's not a source of water along the entire 4.6 mile trail. It's a very dry trail, and it has a lot of hill climb. By the time you reach the NP border, you've gained 3,000 feet of elevation over 3.6 miles, and it comes in steep hill climbs with gradients reaching 35%. To reach Deer Park trail head, you gain about another 1500 feet of elevation in the last 1.7 miles. The best thing about this trail is, after the first 1.5 miles of hill climb from the trail head, you're hiking with great, open views of the Olympics. The down side is that there were lots of flies, but when we gained more elevation, we saw deer and an abundance of wild flowers. We camped at a walk in site in Deer Park camp ground, and the next morning, we packed up and drove the short road up to the Blue Mountain trail head. There's an easy, .5 mile loop around the top of Blue Mountain, and we went up at 6:30 am to get spectacular views of the Olympics, and even though it was hazy, we could still see from the Pacific to Puget sound. It was a quick, little side trip, and early in the morning, we had it all to ourselves -- a great way to end the trip.