Tag: Constance Pass

North Fork Skokomish Fire Before and After (1)

The Olympic National Park opened up the Staircase Rapids Loop Trail on July 8th for the first time since the fire in 2025 devastated the area. The valley of the North Fork Skokomish was one of my favorite locations and I went to take photos of the area on the 8th. Each set of photos shows the same location before and after. Some images aren’t exact matches … but I did as well as I could with the images I had. The Staircase Loop Trail leaves from the Staircase Ranger Station, runs 1 mile (1.6 KM), crosses the river (on a bridge that was protected from the fire) and returns back to the parking lot.

The first set is from an overlook close to the trailhead (but slightly off the trail).

Up River View Before
Up River View After

The second set is of the Slate Creek crossing. The wood single stringer bridge is completely gone.

Slate Creek with Bridge (before)
Slate Creek Crossing with No Bridge

(Note the woman on the left for scale)

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Constance Pass

View North up the Dungeness River valley

This is the view north from Constance Pass, the divide between the Dosewallips valley and (above) the Dungeness River Valley. You can just make out some of Vancouver Island around the Victoria area across the Strait of Juan De Fuca. This area is mostly in the Buckhorn Wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest, not in the Olympic National Park.

Along the ridge near Constance Pass are a couple of rock shelters (shown below). I haven’t been able to track down their origin. However, they must have provided a welcome windbreak during stormy weather.

Rock Windbreak
View over rock windbreak looking south to The Brothers.
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