When a trip allows, I will create a track for the McKinstry ‘trail’, and report on its condition. Several people over the last few years have reported variously that it is almost impossible to follow, or that parts of it have been maintained. I doubt that the section from where it drops to river level, to the crossing of the Rubicon, and on to the Hell Hole Trail is easy to follow, as this section was destroyed long ago by helicopter logging and never properly restored. I have not been there since 2008! If you have information from the last few years, please provide it as a comment to this page.

This route is not really in the Granite Chief Wilderness, but one looking at the map as I did might think that it would make a good route into the wilderness. It leaves FS 14N05 between Devils Peak and Guide Peak, descends to the Rubicon River, crosses to Five Lakes Creek, and joins the Hell Hole Trail. The trailhead sign says Rubicon River 1-1/2, Hell Hole Reservoir 2-1/2, but these mileages are clearly incorrect. The TI 804 mileage of 3.6 to the Rubicon crossing and another 1.5 to the Hell Hole Trail seem much more reasonable. The trail is easy to follow as far as the crossing of a dry creek below Little McKinstry Meadow, then is hard to follow through the trees until it comes out on the granite bench above the river. It is a little hard to follow off the bench and down to the river. Along the river it quickly fades in logging debris. One set of cairns leads down to the river, but there is no apparent trail on the opposite side. In exploring this area on the north side of the river, I discovered there are several cairned routes leading over to Five Lakes Creek, but no real trail at all. From the falls on Five Lakes Creek, several cairned routes lead west to the south and north sides of Hell Hole Reservoir. The best seems to leave the creek about 100m west of the falls. This route wanders along benches, fading out in places, and dumps out on the shoreline of the reservoir. There are some vague cairned routes above the reservoir, hard to follow, or you can walk below the high water mark all the way to Grayhorse Creek and then back onto the Hell Hole Trail, such as it is. Most of this route was never a trail, what was has not been maintained in a long while, certainly not since the logging which obscured parts of it, and there are multiple cairned routes. Only for experienced backcountry people who enjoy this sort of thing.