Category: Trail

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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Trail Benches

Trail Benches

The trail up Mt Ellinor in the SE corner of the Olympic Mountains (outside of the National Park) is one of the most heavily used in the Olympics. It’s a reasonable hike up to a spectacular view. There are three trailheads … One at the bottom at Big Creek Campground (a 6 mile hike with lots of additional elevation gain), one at the “mid-point” (a 3.1 mile hike) and the upper trailhead (a 1.6 mile hike) — all mileages one way. Those choosing the upper trailhead to shorten the hike miss some wonderful forest, including this bench-rock location. The boulder covered with lichen and moss is worth spending time with … and the matching benches are a nice feature … although when you’re hiking by yourself, they seem excessive.

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Mt Olympus from the High Divide

Mt Olympus from the High Divide at Sunset

I took this image a few years back while hiking around the High Divide, camping in a spot just off the trail. There wasn’t much water around (1/2 mile + away), but the view made up for it. The High Divide is the most popular backpack in the Olympic National Park … these days you need to make a reservation months in advance … and even then good luck getting one of the limited number.

Below is a view south from the High Divide trail about a mile or so from the camp above. Mt Olympus is the snowy peak on the left of center, Mt Tom is the snow peak just right of center. The Hoh River valley is between the trail and those peaks.

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Ocean Spray Breaking Over Trail

Ocean Spray Breaking Over Trail

I thought it looked like waves of ocean spray were breaking over this trail. Ocean Spray is also called “ironwood” because the wood is so hard. NW native peoples used the wood for such things as arrows and harpoon shafts. It was also used as nails in carpentry before iron was available. It is common from sea level to mid elevations in the Pacific Northwest.

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