Trailhead Mt. Ellinor Trail #812 Mt. Ellinor Upper Trailhead Fishing Lake Cushman has year-round open season fishing and is stocked with Kokanee salmon and Cutthroat trout. Skokomish Park is fitted with a boat ramp with three paved ramps that allows access to the lake for a small day-use fee. Boat rentals are also available at the park. Swimming and watersports Swimming, boating, kayaking and cliff jumping are also among the most popular activities for Lake Cushman visitors. Public access to the lake is available at Skokomish Park and Lake Cushman Resort. Lodging The Skokomish Park campground is a former state park that was sold to private operators in 2002. The campground includes tent and RV campsites, group campsites and picnic areas. Further away from the lake are Big Creek Campground in Olympic National Forest and Staircase Campground in Olympic National Park. Big Creek offers tent sites and RV parking and is situated from the lake. Staircase is from Lake Cushman and offers 47 camping sites. The Lake Cushman Resort was permanently closed in 2018 due to the expiration of its 50-year lease with Tacoma Public Utilities. Incidents In August 2020, the U.S. Forest Service closed all public roads leading to Lake Cushman due to concerns of overcrowding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A weekend traffic jam on the lake's primary two-lane, unpaved road had caused concerns about access for emergency vehicles, including an incident where one man died of drowning. The Forest Service also cited the congregation of people as being a potential vector for spreading COVID-19 and noted several fights, assaults, and other incidents. References External links Lake Levels and River Flows, Cushman Project Settlement, Tacoma Power Photograph of Lake Cushman circa 1899 from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections Cushman Bodies of water of Mason County, Washington Olympic National Forest Tacoma Public Utilities