Queets River
Olympic National Forest, Washington State
August 12 - 14, 2005
This trip started unlike normal, with one broken foot and sever days of having no idea were we were exactly going. As you know that is something I never recommend. Ken and I had a few extra days at the end of our summer and decided to load the car with what we could and head out to the Olympics. We originally had planned on a 5 - 7 day backpack trip which was interrupted by a somewhat broken but healing foot. Seeing we had the time... just not the full ability we decided to get as close as we could without doing the trip, kind of a scoping trip for next time.
If you have never taken the opportunity to visit the Olympic National forest I highly recommend you do. Especially if you live in Washington or somewhere close to it. Driving into the area you pass lots of small beach towns up and down windy roads and see lots of trees. Trees are nice and all, but unless you drive off the beaten path you won't really experience the Rain Forest for what it really is. We took two different side roads, first was too the Graves Creek campground and the other was too Queets River campground. Graves Creek was to be our trailhead for our backpack trip. Queets River was just another insane thing we just had to do.
Graves Creek
To get to Graves Creek you drive HWY 101 to Quinault Lake and head for the lake. This is the last place you will be able to find a store, mailbox and hot shower. This is something to be remembered because on the way out it will be the first place you will stop for a hot shower and food. The road continues past the lake for several more miles (about 14) to the end of the road, most of which is unpaved and gravel. It's a good idea not to travel fast down this road for several reasons; 1 - you don't want to drive off the road or hit something/someone, 2 - it's scenery is far to beautiful to miss. You pass waterfalls, rivers, streams, big old growth trees all tucked in a dense deep forest that has been untouched by human machinery.
Once you almost reach the end of the road you find the campground to your left. I do have to say it isn't your typical car camping camp ground. Yes you find picnic tables, fire-pits and bathrooms, but you find you are tucked in a densely forested area with the trees covered in moss and ferns. For those that want a cozy moist cool place to reside in the summer this is your place. The temperatures here are much cooler than those back home in Oregon. Never once while camping in Graves creek did we break out in shorts and bathing suits, it just wasn't warm enough. The temperatures back home were in the 90's, so needless to say we were thankful we brought our fleece. We kept our food and anything smelly in the car at night so as to not attract bear or other animals. The camp area had bear boxes but not any close to where we were staying, our car worked nicely for this reason.
We nestled in here for 2 nights/3 days of hiking, biking and bug swatting. There was no shortage of bugs here so make sure you bring your spray. Other than that this was a wonderful introduction to the National Forest. The river wasn't far from our camp so we spent lots of time down there and we took our bikes and rode all over the place. Not far from the campground is the trailhead where we were going to start our backpack trip. We hiked up the path, over a creek and through the woods. The tree's were immense and the feeling of the forest was intense. The main pathway was well marked and quickly narrowed as you went up into the trees. Even if you weren't going to backpack... you need to experience hiking in these forests.
Once we got back from our hike we ride our bikes down the road we came in on. Not many cars, not much noise and not many people. Even if there were you wouldn't be able to hear them, the trees are so dense that noise isn't really ever an issue. While we were on our ride we'd stop now and again to look and see all the different views and scenery. When we paused for a moment we couldn't help but feel watched. Knowing that there were definitely bear and cougar in the area we kept alert most all the time. This time we were lucky it was only a herd of elk, and not a small herd let me tell you. They were tucked in off the road in a thicket of trees. We got off our bikes and tried to sneak up to get a better look, and boy did we. Once we realized we could almost see their pupils, we thought "oh we might be a little toooo close", so we backed off and left them alone. But what a sight!
Queets River campground
After leaving our cool hideaway by Graves Creek we headed back out the direction in which we came... to the showers. Once showered we thought that we'd try checking out some of the beach camp areas and see if there was anything available. Needless to say there wasn't, unless you were wanting to camp with local white trash and other interesting things that were wondering about. We had seen a ranger station along the road and decided to stop and see if there was anything else available. There was only one other place because the Queets Campground was closed for some unknown reason to us. We drove to Kalaloch for food and then over to the camp area to see what was available.
We went and checked out the other area next to the ocean and it was ok but found nothing like we'd already been at. Thinking we'd just go back to Graves Creek we'd thought we'd ask the Ranger station why the Queets River Campground was closed. The woman said that the road was washed out and had been for some time. We knew that at the end of that road there was a trailhead to one of the more rigorous trails in the Olympics. So we asked if people were still getting through, she said "yes, but you have to park your car about half way in and hike to the end of the road, then start your real hike." We were just interested in the camping area at the end of the road. She said that we could ride our bikes in, we just had to leave a note on our car telling the rangers where we were and what we were up to. She also mentioned that she "wasn't sure what was all in there, nobody has camped in there for some time." With our adventurous spirit and night time coming in about 5 hours we decided to take it on.
While we drove back into the forest as far as we could and parked. We quickly took our inventory to see how we were going to get in to the camp area and survive for the remaining 3 days 2 nights we had left. We had 2 - mountain bikes, 1 - small backpack, 1 - 6 man tent, 2 - sleeping pads, a couple camp chairs, lots of car camping food, first aid kit, backpacking stove, water filter and bear spray with a few other odds and ends. Our first thought was how are we going to carry all of what we had on our bikes and none the less ride. We soon figured it out, we used the tent bag as a backpack and loaded things on and inside. The remaining stuff that we couldn't fit in my backpack we strapped to the bikes, needless to say... it was an interesting ride.
After we took off it didn't take long before we realized we had 7 miles of riding to go with way to heavy of stuff on our bodies on a road that we didn't know if much still existed. After about 1 mile in we found out what the road was going to be like. We rode up a big gravel hill to find the washed out area. Needless to say, you could pass on bikes ok, but you didn't really trust that it wasn't going to slide away again. The washout was massive, the entire bank down 100 feet to the river was gone, very impressive. After we carefully passed we continued up and down the road again, stopping every couple miles to relieve the pain in our butt and let our legs and feet get a little blood back into them.
This was a pretty way to go but kind of eerie. There were only a couple people at the area we started, after that nobody. We were riding our bikes into somewhere nobody no longer went and to a campground that was abandoned. The pretty part was passing all the trees and streams along the road that was no longer traveled. This also meant there were trees crossing the road in places and limbs tossed here and there. Seemed that the local bear, elk and other animals knew there wasn't anyone traveling on the road either because you could tell they had been there, lots of poo of all kinds. This was a little unnerving but we continued on.
Once near the end of the road we found the campground and quickly found our place to crash. We noticed that there were others that have ventured out this way and left us a nice little pile of wood to start a fire. This was great considering you were in a rainforest with much of its dead wood waterlogged. After we made camp we started looking for a place to hang our food. Seems that all the lowest branches that we could have used to tie a line too were about 50 feet up, plan B became of interest. Plan B was to look and see if there were unlocked bathrooms and if so as long as they didn't have crap all over them, we'd leave our food in there. Which is what we did. Then we went to gathering more firewood.
At the very end of the road was the trailhead for the difficult hike we'd heard about. The trail leads right down to the river. The start of the trail... is on the other side of the river. This was fine if you had very long strong legs and a river with no water, but most of us do not and the river definitely had water flowing in it. Needless to say we both thought about crossing it just to cross it. Since my husband had the broken foot he tells me "I'd just like to see someone do that, why don't you go cross it. Rarely passing on such a challenge I just stared at him and said "you just had to say that didn't ya". So I did, which wasn't probably a smart thing to do. It took me quite awhile to find a place in the river that was low and slow enough to cross. I had to cross a smaller incoming river/creek to get to anywhere near were I wanted to go. Once I found my spot, I had to use two big sticks to help me hold my balance or off swooshing down the river I'd go, this was quite an exhausting task. After riding our bikes in like we did the day before this just stank.
Once across the other side and thanking God for being alive I realized all too soon I had to go back somehow. Needless to say I wanted to hang around as long as I could before needing to try that again. My legs were so tired I wasn't sure if I could get back. Crossing a stream is one thing... crossing a river is another, and this was a river. I found the trail entrance and a ton of other sticks people had used to cross the river with, seems like I wasn't too out of line for using them. Going back the other way was much harder... I was totally exhausted. When I got back to camp I thought to myself... I just have to do that trail someday, someday I will, just not today.
We ended up staying here for the 3 days we planned. Never did we see another soul nor did we see any big animals. We were visited by a few little creatures of sorts and more bugs. The stars at night were incredible and the weather here was much better than at Graves creek, much warmer for some reason. Near the river there were biting fly's and some other strange bug I'd never seen before. When we were near camp we'd burn a fire to keep all the pests away. This proved very helpful, it makes your food much less crunchy.
The ride out was a bit better than our trip in. The eeriness had left us and the days were warmer than at the start of our trip. Our packs were a little less heavy because we ate all the food but our legs were a little more tired from all the walking and biking we had to do around camp. Back at the car we realized though we were trying to stay low-key so we could fully recover from our food breaking ordeal, we once again had found ourselves on another twist of life journey. Another story to tell the grandkids, well actually another story to tell you. If I could do this all again... I would. I'd bring a few other things instead, like a 2 man tent not a 6man.
~by Karin Munson, Beaverton, Or.