Enchanted Valley via East Fork Quinault River — Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021

Ran through the spellbinding Quinault rainforest into Enchanted Valley to see the largest known Western Hemlock, 2 miles past the chalet. 2.5 miles after starting from Graves Creek trailhead you reach Pony Bridge which is worth the visit by itself. The river roars below through the box canyon with a majestic waterfall cascading into it and the lush rainforest seemingly spilling over. 5 miles in, the trail is flooded over a foot high that might cover hiking boots. It looks like people have been going far off trail to get around it which hopefully is not the norm to be damaging the surrounding ecosystem like that. An advantage of trailrunning shoes is you can go right through the waterlogged trails, creeks and rivers. There were blowdowns but none appeared to be recent.

10 miles in the snow started accumulating. After 12 miles the snow was approaching a foot deep in places. The trail had been broken through to the chalet which made navigating and moving through the snow easier. Be careful on the Quinault River bridge before entering Enchanted Valley. I wasn’t wearing traction so the footsteps through it were a little icy. When stepping on the snow, it would sometimes break to the side causing the foot to slip. The railing is sturdy to hang onto. It looks like the river below can be forded though it’s fast moving.

The prize for making it past the bridge is entering Enchanted Valley, also known as the “Valley of 10,000 Waterfalls”. The chalet for good reason is generally the draw, but for me it’s the waterfalls cascading high from the mountains. It has that same mystique you get while in the Enchantments Core where nothing and everything makes sense.

I broke trail past the chalet but the snow never got much higher than 1ft. There is some elevation gain and loss but you’re mostly not far from the river. Though the valley was shrouded in clouds, this stretch was still extraordinary. Based on a past WTA report from 2017, I found the wooden post marker for the turnoff for the Western Hemlock on the left side of trail, 2.1 miles from the chalet. There might usually be an off-trail path that leads to it but the snow covered the ground. Based on a picture included in the 2017 post, I found what was mentioned as the Western Hemlock tree. The ground around it is worn and there were white crystal looking rocks at the base of it that most certainly weren't placed there by nature. I did notice those striking white rocks other places along the trail. While I’m a firm believer in LNT, I found it beautiful that was the marker instead of a sign.

Looking online, you will find different sites reporting the Enchanted Valley Western Hemlock as the world’s largest, to the largest in America, and then I found on americanforests.org that the Western Hemlock tree crowned the largest known one in the US in 2018 looks different than the one in the 2017 post and one I found. A call to the ranger station will solve this mystery but I’m holding on to what I experienced. 2 miles past the chalet stands a tree with crystals at its base. It may be the world’s largest known Western Hemlock, the largest in the country, or neither. Upon seeing it, the forest went silent and I choked up when leaving it. And that for me makes it special.

Total out and back: 32 miles with 9,000ft of elevation gain over 9 hours.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/4748146262