We hiked in for a long weekend at the Dosewallips abandoned car campground in Olympic NP. We observed fresh shattered glass at the parking area as a reminder to not leave valuables in your car.
Note, the WTA trail description states no dogs allowed beyond the National Park boundary; however, the 2016 NPS brochure for Dosewallips Campground states "Pets and bicycles are not permitted on trails but are allowed on the washed out road." It is also NPS policy to allow dogs in campgrounds only, so it is my understanding that dogs are allowed on the washed out road all the way to the Dosewallips campground (otherwise why would they even mention it in the brochure?). We encountered a few other folks with their pups that also had this interpretation.
Trail conditions were good. Note, if you're headed to Elkhorn, the National Forest website is out-of-date and incorrectly says it's about a mile from the parking area. This refers to the the 2001-2002 washout area (switchbacks on trail), but a more recent debris flow put the current parking area farther back, about 2.5 miles from Elkhorn (and about 6.5 miles from Dosewallips). Elkhorn was a nice place for a snack and break, and looked like a nice campground in its own right; but we were headed on to Dosewallips.
The trail past Elkhorn is steeper in places than we anticipated, but nothing extreme. The trail has been adversely affected over the years by a number of geohazards such as river erosion, landslides, debris flows, and rock falls; but no real trail obstructions. Downed trees were mostly removed with the exception of one easily passable blowdown. The big overhanging rock face before Dosewallips falls is an Eocene submarine basalt flow exhibiting outcrops of pillow basalt. Pretty cool if you're a geo-geek like me. Just don't linger in this stretch too long! Lots of evidence of rock falls through this stretch. Dosewallips falls had a beautiful glacial blue hue.
The Dosewallips campground was nice and the more well-used campsites were in great condition. Each usable site (maybe 8 or so) had a fire ring and at least one, but usually two, picnic tables; so camp chairs are not needed. Friday was empty, but a number of sites filled up by Saturday afternoon. Evening winds were mild and brisk; seemed to die down after 5p or so. Temps at night were high 30s-low 40s. A herd of black-tailed deer passed through the camp a number of times since it seems to be one of the few areas for good grazing.
Cougar sighting: We did encounter a very large cougar along the bluff about 0.2 mile into the Terrace Loop trail (junction located a couple hundred feet past the abandoned ranger station). I'll preface this by saying we irresponsibly disobeyed the well-posted signage and took our dogs along thinking it would be one of those well-trodden nature trails often found at car campgrounds. We kept them on a tight leashes to check it out a bit. The trail is actually a narrow footpath; we hadn't seen anyone all day and were curious for a good river overlook so we pushed on a little farther. About 0.2 mile in we observed a lot of fur on the trail before I eventually looked around and noticed a massive cougar uphill just as it was slowly advancing down toward us, focused intensely on my dog next to me. I instantly regretted leaving my bear spray back at camp.
I stepped back hoping we'd just startled it and it would simply leave us be, but it stepped forward, and I realized we were in for something serious. I knew not to run, so we stood our ground. To our dismay, our frantic efforts to shout and flail were ineffectual as the cougar continued to creep within 20 feet of us and crouch--an attack on us appeared imminent. After shouting like a madman and throwing a number of handfuls of soil (couldn't find rocks in that moment!!), which pathetically sprinkled the ground at its feet, it eventually turned and reluctantly sprung up and over the knoll. Once it was out of sight we hastily absconded back to camp. That was about as close of a call as I ever had.
I bring this up to remind dog owners to follow the posted signage and keep dogs off the trails. This was honestly the first time we disobeyed posted dog rules and it nearly got one of our beloved heelers mauled. We'll never make this mistake again. Please learn from this.
I reported the encounter in detail to a NPS biologist. She inferred that we came across a recent kill site and the cougar was defending its kill, so hopefully its not an encounter likely to occur again. Nevertheless, proceed cautiously through this area, especially on the Terrace Loop trail for the time being. Stay vigilant; I shudder to think what would've happened had we not noticed it lurking in the shadows when we did! At the very least, bear spray is recommended through these parts.
Happy hiking.
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