Lower South Fork Skokomish River Winter Hike Washington

An easy river hike in the southern Olympics off Hwy 101 nears Hoodsport in the Olympic National Forest.  We did get off trail at one spot and then decided to hike a short ways beyond Camp Comfort, so our hike was about 11 miles round trip with an 800 ft elevation gain over all.

 The hike begins with a 300 ft climb over a hill, then drops 300 ft to the Skokomish River. Most of the hike is in the forest near the river, but the river is seldom in view. There are several stream crossings. The larger streams have nice wooden bridges across them, take the time to stop and look as there were a variety of small waterfalls. There are also several small streams to cross on rocks.
We reached Camp Comfort after 4 miles. There were two trails, one said stock trail and the other had a picture saying no horses. I thought that was the "people" trail. But after about 1/2 mile, we realized it was a trail, not on the map that led to another forest road. We did pass by a nice small falls on the way up and back.

 

Back at Camp Comfort we followed the "stock" trail, which came out along the river for a nice view. The trail continues for another 6.3 miles to the Upper South Fork Trailhead, much further than we had time to walk to day. I had read that there was a nice bluff overlook another 3/4 of mile, so we continued along the trail.

The overlook was in a nice sunny spot with a great view. A nice place to stop and eat lunch.

 On the drive back, we saw Mount Rainier in the distance appearing to float in the sky. A beautiful day in mid January.