Big Creek

We drove to the Big Creek Campground in Olympic National Forest near Lake Cushman to hike the Big Creek Loop Trail, about 4.5 miles with 850 ft of gain. Beautiful forest with several bridge crossings over creeks with small cascades and wildflowers along the trail. Wonderful hike on a very cloudy day.We went clockwise along the loop.

Views of Big Creek from the lower loop

More views along the loop

Big Creek

Parallel Creek

More views of Big Creek along the trail

Skinwood Creek was mostly covered by downfall above the bridge

some of the wildflowers and fungi we saw along the trail this morning

Big Creek Loop

I drove out to the north end of Lake Cushman to hike the Big Creek Loop Trail and added a mile up the Mt Elinor Connector Trail to the viewpoint. As the campground is closed, parking is by the road and it's an additional 0.4 miles to the Big Creek Loop Trail. Overall my hike today was 7.2 miles with 1,700 ft of gain.  I went clockwise along the loop trail and only saw one other hiker this morning. View of Bid Creek looking downstream from the lower bridge over Big Creek.

View upstream along Big Creek from the lower bridge crossing, Mt Elinor in the far distance.

zoom of Mt Elinor

I only saw a few trillium along the trail today.

North Branch of Big Creek near the beginning of the Mt Elinor Connector Trail

There were a couple of snow patches on the Mt Elinor Connecter  trail

view of Lake Cushman from the viewpoint

Back on the loop trail, bridge over the North Branch of Big Creek

North Branch of Big Creek

Bridge over Big Creek

some views of Big Creek, there are lots of downed trees over the creeks, making photos difficult

This bridge is right next to a huge boulder.

lovely moss covered boulders along the trail

one of the smaller bridges

Skinwood Creek

bridge over Skinwood Creek

Skinwood Creek upstream from the bridge

No Name Creek upstream from the bridge, lots of downed trees hiding the creek.

Bridge over No Name Creek

View of Big Creek back near the beginning of where I started the loop trail.

Lovely mossy tree limbs hanging over the trail