NED HILL TRAIL

Abandoned trail; no longer maintained 
Length 1.2-mi/1.9 km 
Access Slab Camp Route 
USGS Map Tyler Peak Agency Olympic National Forest

Although the Forest Service has abandoned it, the Ned Hill Trail is in good 
condition. The trail leads to the summit of Ned Hill, where a makeshift fire 
lookout used in the 1930s still stands. No water is available on the trail.

The unmarked path begins on the south side of FS Road 2878, 0.3-mi/0.5 km from 
its junction with FS Road 2875 at Slab Camp. At first the trail climbs through 
moderately large second-growth fir having dense undergrowth of rhododendron, 
salal, and Oregon grape. Near the top the trees are much smaller, more scattered, 
and one has glimpses of the mountains, but they are only partial views-of Blue 
Mountain, Baldy, and Tyler and Maynard Peaks.

The summit (1.2 mi/1.9 km; 3450 ft/1052 m) is a disappointment-one has no view at 
all because the peak is overgrown with tall trees. The old lookout consists of a 
crude platform, perhaps 20 feet high, built on top of two standing tree trunks 
and two poles alongside. Several rungs of the access ladder are missing, as is 
part of the platform. The structure is unsafe, and one climbs it at considerable 
risk-which is pointless because it is not high enough to look out over the trees.

Ned Hill never had a live-in lookout; the fireguard at Slab Camp went up occasionally, 
during spells of hot, dry weather, to observe the country when the fire danger was 
high. This was fifty years ago, before the trees had grown high enough to obscure 
the view, and one could look out over the area devastated by the Maynard Burn, a 
forest fire that occurred in the early 1900s. Most of this area is now covered with 
dense stands of second-growth fir.