Capitol Forest Adventure

capitol Forest fun

Capitol State Forest sits close enough to home that it’s easy to forget about. For years, I did. Life filled the space where time in the woods used to live.

That’s changing.

I’m building a Jeep with a long view—eventually Mexico—and Capitol Forest is a perfect proving ground. Close, familiar, and unforgiving enough to show you what works and what doesn’t. Shakedown runs matter. Better to find problems here than somewhere remote with real consequences.

I also picked up another excuse to get back up there: I became a trail guide for the OnX Offroad app. That meant running a route, tracking it cleanly, and submitting it so others can navigate the area without wandering into trouble or dead ends. Mapping forces discipline. You pay more attention when you know someone else may rely on your line.

This run started simple. Left work on the west side of Olympia, took Delphi Road out to Waddell Creek, and followed it to the forest entrance. The road in is paved. Once inside, it turns to gravel—with random patches of pavement that make no sense and probably never will.

Most of Capitol Forest is logging road: wide gravel corridors meant for trucks, not adventure. The interest is in the off-shoots—the tighter, muddier spurs that remind you this place wasn’t built for comfort. I poked down a few, but only one turned into real mud.

I don’t push mud solo. That’s not caution—it’s math. Recovery alone is slow, expensive, and sometimes impossible. So I stayed on the main lines this trip.

On a previous run with my son, we hit that same mud section properly. My Jeep was still open-open, sitting on 33-inch BFG KO2s. His rig was a different animal: first-gen Toyota, dual transfer cases, locked front and rear, 35s at the time (now on 37-inch Yokohama muds). Same terrain. Very different outcomes. Still a good day.

Capitol Forest has more than mud. There are views worth stopping for and plenty of spots to disappear for a night or two. It’s accessible without being tame, which is a rare balance.

If you go, take a trash bag. Pack out your own gear and grab some of what others left behind. The litter problem has gotten worse over the decades. It’s noticeable, and it’s avoidable.

Public land only stays public if people respect it.

This forest deserves better—and it’s still worth the miles.

Tommy’s Toyota