On Sunday 9/7 we left Hillsboro and headed up to do a loop hike in the Olympics. We checked in at the ranger station on the south shore of Lake Quinault. Cost $5 for the permit and $2 per person per day. All the backcountry camp sites on our route did not require reservation- which gave us the flexibility while on the trail to walk a bit farther to the next one as needed. From Hillsboro to the North Fork of the Quinault TH was about 213 miles. Since we were doing this hike counter clockwise we hid my bike at the North Fork TH and drove the 10 miles back over to the Graves Creek TH. No passes needed at either of these TH's.
Trip: Day 1- Graves Creek TH up the Quinault River valley, camp at O'Neil Creek
Day 2- Continue on to Enchanted Valley and camp outside the restricted zone while
they move the Chalet
Day 3- Cross over Anderson Pass, side trip up to Anderson Glacier, then camp at
Honeymoon Meadows on the West Fork of the Dosewallips
Day 4- Short hike down to Dose Forks campsite
Day 5- Hike up the Dosewallips river valley and then camp at Dose Meadows
Day 6- Cross over Hayden Pass and descend 4000ft to Hayes River campsite
Day 7- Hike upstream in the Elwha River valley, climb 1400 ft to Low Divide and spend the night
Day 8- Hike 16+ miles down the North Fork of the Quinault River to the North Fork TH, pick up bike and ride 10 miles over to the Graves Creek TH to get to truck, drive back to North Fork TH to pick up hiking buddy and gear, then drive 200+ miles home
Graves Creek TH
Where we are going: Enchanted Valley and then over Anderson Pass
Big trees
More Big trees
Chalet movement operation- ranger said they are moving it 100 ft back from the edge and that the bank has been eroding about 10ft per year. Ranger said no current plan on what they will do with the structure
Due to the work going on we could not camp at enchanted valley and camped out on a sand bar by the World's Largest Western Hemlock that is on the Nat Geo map. But the tree looked smaller than the ones we saw throughout the day.
Next morning started climbing up to Anderson pass and saw a grove of trees that were all bent- guessing do to heavy snow loads
Not much of a view from Anderson Pass due to being in the trees so we decided to take the .9 mile 500ft climb up to see Anderson Glacier
From Anderson Glacier we descended down and camped at Honeymoon Meadows. Next morning not too far down the trail from Honeymoon Meadows we came across what appeared to me a massive avalanche zone of down trees from one side of the valley extending back up the other side and completely covered the stream
We headed down the West Fork of the Dosewallips and camped at Dose Forks. My hiking partner wasn't smiling the next day when our food bags were attacked by a rodent during the night and decided dried apples and cashews make a good meal. So bear wire prevented any bear from getting to our food but not the tiny mouse. After we set up our tents we found an even better camp site which was past the bear wire and was right next to the stream with easy access to water. At our site we had to cross the bridge back over to the other side to access the river
The next morning we hiked up to Dose Meadows- turned out to be a fairly easy climb up due to the trail climbing only moderately most of the way there. Did encounter a couple of hornets nest right next to the trail as we passed thru some lower meadows. But once at Dose Meadows even a fury friend was out enjoying the sun and scenery
We had frost on the meadow as we headed up to Hayden Pass but once in the sun we quickly warmed up.
From Hayden Pass it is 4000ft of down on what seems like an endless trail to get down to the Hayes River Ranger station on the Elwha river. The next morning we headed upstream to Low Divide. About 1400 feet of climbing to get to the divide and Lake Mary
Started with another morning of frost but we warmed up as we briskly began our trek to the North Fork TH about 16.6 miles away. The stream crossing by Sixteen Mile campsite was easy due to the low water but this could be a show stopper once the water levels start to rise. No stream crossing needed when we got to Elip Creek due to no water running in the stream- at least on the surface. We got to the trail head about 3 PM and then I had to recover my bike and ride the 10 miles back over to our starting TH at Graves Creek to get my truck and then come back to pick up my hiking partner and gear for the long drive home. Total mileage around 86 miles. Was a good first trip to the Olympics
-bruce
