Grisdale Hill and Lake West

An old abandoned fruit tree


Another logging road hike. Most access to ONP is still closed and the cost of gas is sky high so I stuck close to home. I came up with this road walk idea when I went up Grisdale hill the first time. I parked not too far from the overlook of the Skokomish Valley and then walked 8 miles round trip to Grisdale Lookout.

This is not a nature hike. There are no massive trees, there is litter everywhere and this is a logging road. But I did get total solitude and I do enjoy that. I did not take and pictures from the lookout but I have posted pictures from the look out in the past. You can see those pictures here.

I found a pretty campsite on the shores of lake west. Near the campsite I found an old fruit orchard. My topo map has a waypoint called "camp 3" that marked the area. I googled camp #3 when I got home and found that it was a little town with a school. This would have been a logging camp that was used to raze the forest. We have lost so much. We will never be able to comprehend it.

I found an old road that led to the lake the alder trees lining the road looked to be about 50 years old. It was clear they camp up in a row after the road was built. I could guess the age of the road based on those alder trees.

In the little campsite there were three large trees that the loggers did not murder. They really stood out being in the middle of mile after mile of loggin induced wastelands. One tree was a Western Red Cedar, the other two were Douglas-fir.

I had the "trail" all to myself but I did see two pick up trucks where the logging road I was on crossed the road near the High Steel Bridge.


rating out of 5 possible mushrooms:

Beauty:

Difficulty:

8 miles RT with 1000 feet elevation gain.

28 miles on this pair of shoes now







Looked more like a heart before I undearthed it




Lake West with snowy South Mountain in the Background




Lake West




Logging road up Grisdale Hill




Scot's broom still flat from recent snow




Track Log




Elevation Profile for this logging road walk



Gate near lake West and Forest Service Road




Skull on gate




Animal Skull on Gate




Simpson's Camp three, base camp for destroying the forest.
Camp nos. 1 and 2 were absorbed into Camp 3, which was located 17 miles north of Shelton on the upper Skokomish Valley, by West Lake in Mason County. The camp was in existence from 1930 to 1947.

This explains the fruit orchard.



Another image of forest destruction and camp number 3