Franklin Ghost Town — Sunday, Jul. 6, 2014

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

We parked about a 1/4 mile before the first gate because there were many no parking signs right before the one lane bridge. We passed through both old gates and took the trail off to the left that lead down to an over look of the the river. We turned around after realizing we must have gone the wrong way. After passing through both gates continue hiking up the dirt road, it is uphill and will turn to the right. Do not get off on any side trail, just follow the road up hill. You will see a wooden sign on the left and the old coal cart is still there on the right. We followed the sign to the left and eventually came up on the old mine shaft that is covered (see picture). There is a path off to the left of the mine shaft that will bring you to the cemetery. The cemetery is not like a modern day one, the gravestones are spread out. We found about 7 gravestones around but they are scattered in the general area. Just look around on the little paths and you find them pretty easily. On the main path you will come upon two. Heading towards the graveyard on the right side up in the trees you will see a trestle and we also found some building foundations along the way. The path was not bad but a little overgrown with blackberry bushes as you head back into the cemetery. There were a couple muddy spots as we headed back to the cemetery but nothing that our hiking boots couldn't handle. The biggest issue we came across on this hike was mosquitoes! We forgot our bug spray on this hike and regretted it. Especially when we took the wrong path to the river, there were swarms of mosquitoes. This hike is full of things to see and is pretty easy, the kids enjoyed finding pieces of coal and looking for parts of the ghost town. (we had 2 five year olds and 2 ten year olds with us)