Enchanted Valley via East Fork Quinault River — Sunday, Apr. 13, 2025

TLDR

Graves Greek to Enchanted Valley and back.

3 Days, 1 night at Enchanted Valley, 1 night at Fire Creek Camp on way out. 

Main notes:

1. Graves Creek Trailhead is currently accessible by car (as of 4/10/25) from the North Shore Road.
2. Trail is in excellent shape, with only minor blowdowns (~5) which are easily routed around. No snow on trail until 2.5 miles past the Chalet.  
3. The Chalet is closed and only around 15 feet from the river bank :(. 
4. Very few people out on a sunny April day during the work week. Shared the Valley campsite with 1 couple the first night, and passed 4 groups on the East Fork Quinault. Feels like nice weekends in April are the secret to getting good trail access! 
5. I saw 2 elk, but no bear or cougars. 

Detail 

Drove out to Graves Creek campsite the late morning of April 13, 2025. Sunny weather and the new bridge over North Fork made passage relatively easy. There are large potholes, and several single lane tracks after the ranger station, recommend a vehicle with some clearance.

The East Fork Quinault River trail is spectacular. The trail starts immediately by crossing a beautiful river (photo below), then 1 mile uphill, 1 mile downhill to Pony bridge, which has a remarkable canyon feature which I haven’t seen before on trails in this area. The trail then passes through several groves of old growth, some meadows, where I saw two Elk, all with relatively easy access to the river (or crossing streams) for water. I was very impressed with the infrastructure. There are no stream fords, but nicely maintained single log bridges with convenient handrails. After around 13 miles, you cross a well maintained, but very high up bridge, and the valley opens up to show the Chalet. There are several privies and maybe as many as 8 campsites in close proximity to the Chalet, when I arrived there was nobody in the valley. 

The next morning I set out to find snow further up the Valley, and found it around 2.5 miles from the Chalet, where I turned around and headed back down towards Graves Creek. I got to Fire Creek Camp before calling it a night, there was one group camping at Pyrites Creek Camp, but otherwise only two folks heading into the Valley to camp. 

Final morning, had a pleasant 3 mile hike out to Graves Creek and homeward, plenty of parking when I arrived at 9am. Overall I highly recommend this trail!