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Quick Facts

Location: Northeast Olympic Peninsula

Land Agency: Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest

Roundtrip: 10.4 miles

Elevation Gain: 2,800 feet

Green Trails Map: Tyler Peak No. 136 and Mount Angeles, No. 135

Contact: Hood Canal District ONF; and ONP; www.nps.gov/olym

Notes: Dogs prohibited at National Park boundary.

Access: From Sequim, head west on US 101 and turn left onto the Taylor Cut-off Road just after crossing the Dungeness River. In 2.6 miles, bear right onto Lost Mountain Road. In another 2.6 miles turn left onto dirt FR 2870. After one mile bear right onto FR 2875 and in 3.5 miles come to the primitive Slab Camp and trailhead.

You can easily drive to Deer Park via a dirt road from Port Angeles. So why hike this somewhat steep trail? Well, here are five good reasons. One: for access to Deer Park when the road is closed. Two: wildflowers along this trail grow in profusion, in both numbers and varieties. Three: solitude for most of the way. Four: spectacular views of the entire Grey Wolf River Valley and its towering peaks. And five: you’ll earn it all—something you simply can’t do from the seat of your SUV.

The trail starts out gentle enough through a dry Douglas-fir forest, layered with rhododendrons, and carpeted with salal and kinnickinnick. After about 1.5 miles the grade steepens. Pass a spring—the only reliable water source along this trail once the snows melt. After about 2.7 miles, reach an open rib and your first breathtaking views of the Grey Wolf Valley. A bench has been placed here in memory of longtime trail volunteer and Sequim resident, Phil Hall.

Now, through open forest and dry rocky slopes the trail reaches higher. At 3.6 miles enter Olympic National Park. If you have been hiking with your dog, this is your turning around point. The next 1.6 miles continues through some of the most scenic hiking terrain in the Olympics. Through parkland meadows and basalt outcroppings, the trail weaves its way to Deer Park, delivering breathtaking views at every bend in its course. Gaze out to barren Baldy and Grey Wolf Peak. Admire the jagged peaks of Mounts Walkinshaw, Clark, Deception, and Mystery-some of the loftiest summits on the Peninsula.

Peer down into the emerald valleys of the Grey Wolf River, and the Grand and Cameron Creeks admiring some of the largest concentrations of old-growth forests in the Olympics. And at your feet, admire a breathtaking floral show! There’s arnica, phlox, pearly everlasting, stonecrop, chocolate lily, paintbrush, columbine, yellow violet, wallflower, buttercup, cinquefoil, rockslide larkspur, and many more. At 5.2 miles you’ll come to a junction with the Three Forks Trail at the Deer Park Campground high on a grassy shoulder of Blue Mountain.

If you have more energy, consider walking up the Deer Park road a mile or so to the half mile Rainshadow Nature Trail on the summit of 6,007-foot Blue Mountain. Enjoy incredible views here out to Vancouver Island and the Cascades.

For more information on Deer Ridge and over 100 more hikes on the Olympic Peninsula, pick up a copy of Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula.