With the Elwha changing it's course and cutting across the Elwha River road, the Park Service had to close driving access to the Griff Creek Trail head. To begin this hike we parked at the gate located at Madison Falls trail head. Here we walked along the road and on a bypass trail along side the river. Around two miles to the official GC trailhead. There were four downed trees before the first lookout, 1875 ft. elevation. Another eight trees across the trail before the "end of the trail", 3300 ft. Some of these have been down for years and have climb-over notches cut in them.
Took us 3 hours to reach the official end and downed park service sign. Had lunch and continued up to the ridge/peak, 3500 ft. Beautiful from top but little room to stand. Careful heading down from ridge with loose rocks present.
We saw blacktail deer and ruffed grouse. We were the only hikers on this trail.
One small stream near TH and no water afterwards. Note: we are in our 60's.
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