Four of us decided to brave the weather and try the Enchanted Valley trip in the Olympics. It did rain… but, it is close to the RAIN forest, so we were prepared. The trail starts on an old road to nowhere, but it is smooth and mostly level. The trees are massive and the misty moss covers everything. We arrived rather quickly to Pony Bridge with some great views of the narrow canyon this section of the Quinault Rive has carved out. From here the trail became, and remained VERY muddy. As we continued along, the side streams and tributaries showed marked evidence of massive flooding. Continuing along, we encountered numerous camps, and several herds of elk. While the trail has very little elevation gain, you do some up and down as you cross various streams and banks. We set up camp about 5 miles in, and waited out the rain. No such luck. We pushed on into the valley on Sunday and it is spectacular, even in the clouds and rain. Seeing the waterfalls, and the hanging glaciers provides some wonderful views. I strongly recommend the view from the outhouse looking up at the mountain; a very scenic rest stop. The trail is in good shape, and most of the major bridges have been repaired. There are several major washouts that make things not quite as straight forward. However, follow the pink flagging and you should find the route without difficulty. Several places the river has rerouted itself, and it is amazing to see this large river flowing in the middle of the forest. It really makes you appreciate the power of water. Most streams are easy to cross, or have logs. Some are VERY slippery. The log crossing for NO NAME creek is closed, and after we went anyway, we realized why. The high path to the log has held up ONLY by tree roots. The entire trail up to the log is completely undercut. Keep this in mind when looking for safe crossing. Also, the NO NAME creek log is slippery. Other than mud, the trail is in great shape. It stays in the forest for the entire way.

We hiked up to the Oniel pass junction from the east fork quinault trail this past weekend on a three night trip.

From the park service report, it sounded like a bomb had gone off, which isn't far from the truth. The hike normally takes about 7 hours to go 13.2 miles to enchanted valley, this year it took us 9 hours due to the extensive damage, windfall, and reroutes. While reroutes are marked, they are marked poorly with white/orange stripped tape that is very difficult to see at a distance. This makes good routefinding skills a nessecity.

Fire Creek is passable without problems. Fording is required at pyrites creek, however there are downed trees over the creek that can be crossed with extreme caution. Oniel creek camp lost two spots due to the river changing channels... only two established spots with fire rings remain. A major washout exists after pyrites creek which requires negotiating lots of downed trees. The ford at enchanted valley was about knee deep. Most campspots are now across the river at enchanted valley, but about three remain on the same side as the chalet. Above enchanted valley there are two major washouts, one at the unnamed creek before the record hemlock tree and one after. Both are passable with difficulty, reroutes are marked with rock piles. O'niel Pass junction is melted out (much earlier than usual), but the o'niel pass trail was still snow covered continuously .1 miles beyond, as was the anderson pass trail.

There was lots of bear activitiy at enchanted valley, we sighted over 10 different bears between pyrites creek and enchanted valley, one who came near our camp a few different times. However, he was more interested in the plants behind our camp than us... made for some great pictures though! We also saw several elk, harlequin ducks, and a coyote!

The husband and I were staying at Lake Quinalt Lodge to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and decided to hike into this trail as far as we could in a limited time. The trail goes for about 26 miles, but we made it about 4 1/2 miles in before turning around due to deteriorating trail conditions.

When we started, the day was mostly sunny and fairly warm. The trail has been rerouted at the beginning due the rebuilding of the Graves Creek bridge. But we kept an eye out for the signs and hanging tape and found the rerouted trail with no problems. The temporary crossing over Graves creek is a flattened log and railing which was no problem to cross.

The first few miles of the trail is on an old abandoned road which gradually climbs through the Quinalt rain forest. There was one blow done, but the trail/road is in good shape. The forest did rain on us a bit at the beginning, but it dried up a bit as we headed up. We reached the Pony Creek Bridge in about an hour and marveled at the beautiful canyon and the river rushing through. There are a couple of nice camp sites near this area, one with especially great beach. access to the river below. From there on the trail, the trail conditions got worse as the trail meanders through the forest next to the river. There were several blowdowns to climb under or over and a pretty severe trail wash-out about 1/2 mile from the bridge. We managed to get over that. Navigated around another blowdown which forced us to go around for aways to refind the trail. The crossing at Fire Hole River is not hard if you have poles to maintain your balance as you cross the rocks/logs. The water is deeper than boot-top height so you have to be careful about where you step.

We walked next to several other nice camp sites right next to the river, one with log seating and an old campfire ring (a no-no in the National Park). We finally decided to turn around when we came across a bridge that had collapsed into a marshy area. We didn't see any way immediately evident around the marshy area and decided that we'd gone far enough for one day.

We only saw one other person coming out as we were going in. As we were heading back, there were larger groups of folks making the traverse to Pony Creek Bridge.

Just got back from a leisurely trip to Enchanted Valley and back. Although it was blisteringly hot (we expected to stroll through the cool rain forest), it was magnificent. Sadly, the valley is not lush and green, but is yellow and quite dry. A bit scary. A few waterfalls remain; be sure to ford the river and find the base of the one nearest camp. The rangers guess that Enchanted Valley is as empty as it is right now because there is a fire ban (can't have a fire, won't go camping!), but still we were amazed. We had the valley nearly to ourselves.

No mud. After Pyrites Creek, the water is sparse until the valley. The detour routes for river crossings are straightforward and easy. Have a great time and hope you see as much wildlife as we did. Oh. We were glad there was a good breeze as the bugs are hungry, but eucalyptus/lemon stuff will keep them at bay.