Hoh River

The Olympic Peninsula currently has more snow than the Puget Sound area. There was about a foot of snow on the ground, although 101, the access road to the Hoh Ranger Station and the parking lot were well-plowed and posed no problems.

Elk were everywhere. I encountered one group of elk between Lake Crescent and Forks, and four separate groups of elk along the Hoh access road approaching the Ranger Station. I started my hike at dawn. There were no other cars in the parking lot. The creek adjacent to the parking lot was filled with purple spawning salmon. The trail started out easy, as a well-packed snow trail. At 1/2 mile, I encountered a large group of elk, including several young. They had no interest in moving for me, so I had to take a tiring and time-consuming detour around them through deep snow. Rejoined the trail somewhat later. At about 2/3 mile, no more human footprints appeared and the trail was instead a reasonably well-worn elk track. I followed the elk tracks where possible, although some parts of the trail had not been worn down by elk and was virgin snow, 1 to 1 1/2 feet deep. I was only able to maintain a pace of 1 mile per hour. Shortly after Mineral Falls, I encountered yet another group of elk, in a spot that I could not pass without climbing a steep slope. They were rooted to the trail, so I hunkered down opposite them and just enjoyed their company for a while. Then I went to the river bed, where there were more elk, and walked along the sand bars before heading back.

Although it was difficult to hike very far with the elk and snow, this was a great time to see wildlife. After seeing another group of elk on the way out, I had seen a total of 8 groups of elk, as well as spawning salmon, douglas squirrels, woodpeckers, a blue jay and other birds. I did not see any humans all day until returning to within 1/2 mile of the Ranger Station, where there were several day trippers. There were no water problems. The water level was low and many of the usual wet spots were frozen or covered with snow. The temperatures ranged from 31 to the low 40s, and the weather vacillated between sun and cloud.