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Copyright © Craig Romano/The Mountaineers Books Quinault River-Pony Bridge-Enchanted Valley
Featured In:
Day Hiking: Olympic Peninsula,
by Craig Romano.
A portion of all book sales from the links above benefits WTA and helps protect and maintain our trails. The Quinault is one of the grandest of the rainforest rivers. Draining much of the Olympics' southwest corner, the Quinault is comprised of two main branches: the North and East Forks. This hike takes you along a portion of the East Fork, through a deep glacially carved valley. Start by crossing Graves Creek on a large log bridge. In 0.2 mile come to a well-signed junction. Continue left on a wide and well-graded trail, an old road that once extended almost to Pony Bridge. Along a bench, away from the river, traverse moisture-dripping groves of towering hemlock, spruce, and fir. In winter scads of hoofprints mar the surrounding saturated ground. Stay alert for elk. The trail meanders a little over a small rise. Scores of creeks and rivulets run under, over, and sometimes down the trail. At 2 miles the old road ends. Pass an old picnic table rapidly losing a fight with the elements; then begin to drop a couple of hundred feet to the river. Finally, at 2.3 miles, the East Fork Quinault comes into view. Through a fern-ringed narrow canyon of slate and sandstone, the crystal-clear waters bubble and churn. Walk a little ways to Pony Bridge, which spans this scenic gorge. Enjoy an unobstructed view of emerald pools swirling below and horsetail falls streaking the canyon walls. If you've trekked this way on a rare sunny day, retreat a few hundred feet on the trail to find a rough path leading down to some lunch rocks along the river.
Driving Directions:
From Hoquiam travel north on US 101 for 35 miles. Turn right (east) onto the South Shore Road, located 1 mile south of Amanda Park. Proceed on this road for 13.5 miles (passing the Forest Service's Quinault Ranger Station at 2 miles), coming to a junction at the Quinault River Bridge. Continue right, proceeding 6.2 miles to the road's end and the trailhead. Privy available. Recent Trip Reports
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Day hike
Issues:
Snow on trail
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Reached the Graves Creek TH at 10:00 AM it had started snowing pretty heavy at this point. There was one...
Reached the Graves Creek TH at 10:00 AM it had started snowing pretty heavy at this point. There was one other car at the trail head, we knew it would be a nice quiet hike, goal was make Pony Bridge and decide from there. So we geared up and headed up the trail. There was easily 3 to 4 in. at the TH, but we brought our snow gear, so we were good to go. Trail was in great shape, after a about a 1.5 miles in, the snow was now an easy 6 more in. and really dumping it. So with hesitation we decided to head on back, didn't want to take any chances. Beautiful hike, with great views of Eagles along the river.
Quinault River-Pony Bridge-Enchanted Valley
— Aug 08, 2011
— gsbarnes
Overnight
Issues:
Bugs
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This was our first backpack in quite a while, and our first with an 8-year old, so we took it...
This was our first backpack in quite a while, and our first with an 8-year old, so we took it easy. About halfway up the Enchanted Valley trail, camped near O'Neil Creek Camp (but not in the camp itself), and hiked back the next day. Good thing, too, since the road to the trailhead (Graves Creek Road 1.8 miles east of the Upper Quinault River Bridge) was closed starting the day after we got out, and will be until September 17.
Due to a late start on Sunday (had to drop another child off at camp), we skipped hiking on that day and spent the night at Graves Creek Campground, which allowed us to use up more food and trim down our packs even more. It also alerted us to our main problem during this hike: bugs. Not so many that you couldn't avoid them by moving, but enough that when you sat still for a few minutes without bug repellent you were liable to be bitten multiple times. We set off Monday morning with the toughest part of the hike, the 2 miles at the start (not hard for us adults, but a source of complaints from our 8-year old). The Pop Tart we fed him at the top of the hill, as well as the relative flatness thereafter, staved off most further complaining. While stopped at the top of the hill, we met a Park Ranger heading back, who said we should avoid O'Neil Creek Camp if we wanted to avoid bugs, and advised camping near the river 30 minutes or so before the Camp. Which we eventually did (although how we knew it was 30 minutes before is a mystery to me). Anyway, Pony Bridge is lovely, and, if you wait until the first point you hit the river after that, there's a rocky bar next to the river that is breezy and mostly brush-free, and thus a respite from bugs. We ate lunch there, and noticed there was a sandy spot big enough for a tent. But we pressed on. By 2:30, the kid was getting tired despite our half-hourly rest breaks, so we looked for a campsite in earnest. We found another rocky bar on the river (as well as what looked like a deer skeleton just on the side of the trail - cool, and a little side lagoon off the river with fish fry in it - also cool), and I went ahead a bit to see how close we were to O'Neil Camp (in case we wanted to use a privy). And sure enough, it was about 30 minutes down the trail, and very buggy. But still, privy and bear wire: useful (we used a bear canister borrowed from the South Quinault Ranger Station, but I noticed some other folks used the wire to cache food and other items they didn't feel like taking up the Valley and back down again). Someday we'll be back, and hopefully make it to the Enchanted Valley proper (and beyond). Note: apart from a few ground squirrels, numerous bird calls and what was probably a frog call we heard at the top of the hill west of Pony Bridge, we saw no wildlife on this section of the trail this time of year. I suppose with the road closure and the corresponding decline in hikers, the wildlife might decide to start moving down the river valley during the next month, so keep an eye out if you hike in late September. Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Ripe berries
Issues:
Water on trail | Bugs
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Oh, my. We had not been to Enchanted Valley for 16 years and were afraid we had exaggerated the beauty...
Oh, my. We had not been to Enchanted Valley for 16 years and were afraid we had exaggerated the beauty of it. Not so! We packed in the 6.5 miles to O'Neil Creek Camp for Thurs. night and were the first ones there at 1:30, seeing very few hikers on this popular trail. The trail is easy and incredibly well maintained, with zero issues.
Friday we hiked the 14 miles round trip to Enchanted Valley, spent a couple hours soaking in the countless waterfalls and snowy mountains, then headed back to O'Neil Camp. Although established campgrounds at Pyrite's and Enchanted Valley had several campers, there were long stretches of trail in solitude and the Valley itself offered plenty of shady meadow or sunny river spots where no other people could be seen. The trail had only one issue - a wash took out about 20 feet of trail maybe 2 miles before the Valley. It's easily negotiable with a couple logs to clamber over. We saw a black bear here (O lucky day!!!) who ambled off briskly but was not unduly concerned. Back at O'Neil Camp, there was only one site besides ours occupied. All established camps are equipped with bear wire and privy (carry out or burn your TP, though several hikers didn't). On the hike back out Saturday, there were more folks on the trail, including several families - great to see the kids out there! We encountered what we later found out (thanks to comment below) were fine men & horses of Jefferson County Search & Rescue. Thank you so much for all you do to keep us wilderness fanatics safe and ready for more hikes!!! In all, this trail still deserves its place as one of the most popular in the Olympics. Pics are at http://www.flickr.com/[…]/. Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Bridge out | Bugs | Road to trailhead inaccessible
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If you are going to hike to the Enchanted Valley this summer (2011) you need to do it now. The...
If you are going to hike to the Enchanted Valley this summer (2011) you need to do it now. The Graves Creek access road will be closed and there will be no traffic allowed on the road from August 10 to September 17. This means cars need to out from the trailhead parking lot by August 10. Unsure why NPS is not putting this on their website but they have signs plastered all over the Graves Creek area.
Hiked in to the valley and day hiked up toward Anderson Pass. Was told by the Ranger that it is continuous snow beyond the O'Neil Pass trail cutoff. But about 10 to 15 minutes below that the snow pack took out the hand rail on the log bridge at the top of the White Creek waterfall. The Ranger cautioned that it is not safe to try to walk this 12 inch dia log so if you want to cross, do it sitting down. I was not even willing to do that since with one mistake they would be picking up your pieces as they floated by the Chalet. Many folks hiked in to Pyrites Creek campground and day hiked up to the valley and up the Anderson Pass trail. Others hiked out to Pyrites Creek for their last night, in order to get the last 4 miles off the trip. It is that last 4 miles that really wears you down. Saw two bears - both skedaddled as soon as they saw someone was watching them eat sweetgrass. The rest of the wildlife seems to have moved up with the snow melt.
Quinault River-Pony Bridge-Enchanted Valley
— Mar 27, 2011
— kittmulli
Overnight
Issues:
Blowdowns | Snow on trail
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Road conditions are clear to the trail head, no washouts or downed trees. It rained plenty on the trail and...
Road conditions are clear to the trail head, no washouts or downed trees. It rained plenty on the trail and we had wonderful patches of sun that penetrated through the forest canopy. There was snow in the open areas, mainly covering the trail to a depth of about 10 inches at most.
Trail looks great except for major trail obstructions around Pony Bridge. There are more blow-downs past the bridge but with some effort you can clamber over them, we did it with full backpacks. Past Pony Bridge the blow-downs are harder to navigate, but after the fist half mile there are no further problems. Plenty of open camping sites amongst beautiful trees, close the river. Though it rained plenty over our hike the trees reduced the rain to a constant drip, quite pleasant overall! Cannot wait until those wonderful mountains thaw out and we can venture further into the Olympics |
Black bears are not uncommon along the Enchanted Valley Trail. Photo by Shawnie Vedder.
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