Dosewallips River Road, West Fork Dosewallips River & Anderson Pass — Tuesday, Jun. 3, 2025

The goal of this quick overnight was to push as far up the West Fork Dosewallips as I could in two days, and despite a later start than I had planned on I was able to get all the way up to Honeymoon Meadows.

• The road to the trailhead is in fine shape for any car, though as other reports mention there are some minor potholes to watch out for.
• The road walk from the trailhead to Dosewallips Campground is in great shape. Indian Paintbrush is blooming along the trail and it's incredible to see it as such low altitudes.
• Dosewallips Campground is (as of today) occupied by Olympic National Park trail crew and a mule party. Thank you all for the trail maintenance!
• Dosewallips Terrace Nature Trail (just west of the Dosewallips Campground) is a little brushy with salal encroaching on the trail, but completely passable. Nice views of the river. The only wildlife I saw in two days (besides bugs) was a deer that leapt out in front of me on the west end of this trail.
• Wild rhododendrons are still in bloom starting after the Dosewallips Campground and are quite prevalent between Dose Forks and Big Timber. This is also where the trail was brushiest, and to my understanding the trail crew is going to take care of that soon. Following the trail is never a question- it was more that the salal had grown onto the trail just enough that you couldn't comfortably use trekking poles as you hike.
• There are a few places just before (east of) Diamond Meadows where water runs onto the trail that was slightly annoying, but that's just how the trail was built. Same goes for the final 300' vertical below Honeymoon Meadows.
• The trail was a little brushy again on the climb from the log crossing after Diamond Meadows until Honeymoon Meadows, but not a big deal. This was the only place I saw a blowdown covering the trail for the entire distance I went (Honeymoon Meadows is 14.6 miles from the trailhead/road's end).
• The only snow was one patch just prior to Honeymoon Meadows and another right after, both of which should be gone in a week's time. I turned around at the river ford just after Honeymoon Meadows but could clearly see more snow up higher looking towards Anderson Pass.
• There was the standard assortment of small bugs and flies but nothing was a nuisance.

Flowers are really putting on a show right now on this trail, and the waterfalls coming off Mount Anderson, along with the roar of the river, made for a great two-day getaway still early in the season.