Category: Dosewallips River

Misty Ridge High Key

Misty Ridge – High Key

There are a lot of clouds in the Olympic Mountains … it takes all those clouds to give you the rain forest valleys. And even if the valley is on the downwind side of the peninsula, you still have the clouds. You just end up with less rain coming down from them. Having spent so much time in the Olympics, I guess it’s not surprising that I’m attracted to cloudy ridgelines. This one was taken up the valley of the Dosewallips. The sun had just disappeared into the bright area in the upper left and it started to sprinkle shortly later. Never very hard, but enough to get things (and people) damp.

The dead trees are a result of a forest fire several years before … one that made a mess of the Lake Constance trail … already one of the more difficult hikes in the Olympics, now even more difficult due to so many trees having fallen across the trail. It is still used quite a bit, though, as it is one of the popular approaches to climb Mt Constance (the highest Olympic peak visible on the Seattle skyline).

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Middle Dosewallips River

Middle Dosewallips River

On our dayhike up the Dosewallips Road/Trail, we hiked about 2.5 miles in. Our original destination was Elkhorn Campground … a drive in camp isolated due to the washout of the Dosewallips (or the “Dose” … pronounced (Doe’-See) road (Olympic National Forest and access to the Olympic National Park). We were almost to the entrance to the campground and saw an abandoned road running over towards the river. We followed that and came to a cement bridge across the Dose that I had never been to before (or at least since the road washed out). There wasn’t much on the southern bank except a brief hint of where the road continued … I identified it as Forest Service road 2353 and a map shows it running across the flats on that side of the river. Who knows when it was constructed … except it must have been for logging. One wonders if the road is reopened, if logging will resume in the Olympic National Forest sections.

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Dosewallips Road/Trail

Dosewallips Road/Trail

The Dosewallips Road access to Olympic National Park has been washed out for close to 20 years now … they are still planning on re-routing the access road into the Dosewallips Flats area. Sometime. In the meantime, it’s a great hike, early spring through late autumn. This was October 7th. We hiked in 2.5 miles and back out. The dog was tired. Dog Tired.

Dosewallips Road/Trail 2
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Elk in Winter

Elk in Winter 1

The Olympic Elk (or Roosevelt Elk … Teddy, not FDR) are much easier to see in winter when they are hanging out in the lowlands than in the summer when they wander around much of the Olympic National Park and at some high elevations. The first three shots are of the “Dosewallips herd” … in fact, the first two shots were taken in Dosewallips State Park. Number 3 was taken just across the river in the town of Brinnon … in the school yard. Number 4 is of the Skokomish herd, pictured crossing the North Fork of the Skokomish River at the upper end of Lake Cushman.

Elk in Winter 2
Elk in Winter 3
Elk in Winter 4
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