Lower Gray Wolf River

We started at the lower trailhead (coming from Hwy 101 on the Palo Alto Rd heading west on 2870, it's just past the bridge over the Gray Wolf), there's no trailhead sign, the trail is in the southwest corner of the parking area. The trail begins with a steep uphill that leads to a cool overlook of the river then it's a woodland hike till you get past the Cat creek junction. This part of the trail is little used because most people come from Taylor Creek Road and use the Cat Creek trailhead. The Forest Service site says "Trailhead relocated one mile west of previous trailhead due to slides on first part of trail." The slide area has been rerouted. A few blowdowns but nothing serious. Saw some elk and coyote tracks in the mudddy spots.
Past the second Cat Creek junction (it's a loop so there are two junctions), the trail drops steeply to the river. Then it's a typical Olympics river hike, ir roller-coasters up and sown till you reach the bridge washout. There's a big swath of blowdown from years past which has been cleared except for a few new additions from this year. In that area we saw two woodpeckers flying in and out of a nest cavity in a snag just off the trail last year. No nest activity this year but we saw a woodpeacker in tyhe same area.. The weather stayed cooperative and other than the few recent blowdowns, this is a great spring tune-up outing. The river and canyon are outstanding.