Constance Pass — Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1999

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

The road to the Dosewallips River trailhead gets narrow, steep, and potholed--especially once you get into the National Park. But it is worth the drive to get to one of the most beautiful river walks I've seen in the Olympics. We hiked along the river for 2.5 miles (the West Dosewallips trail,which you reach at 1.4 miles is closed because of the bridge washout). We then turned up the Constance Pass trail for another 2.5 miles to Sunnybrook Meadows. The Constance Pass trail is very steep (2800 feet in 2.5 miles) and I was glad I only was carrying a day pack. We saw a group of backpackers coming down the trail and one of them told us that he was having more trouble descending than going up because of the strain on his knees. The trail switchbacks up steeply through forest with quite a few openings to ever expanding views. When it reaches the lower meadows it passes over (and on) numerous creeks. We ate our lunch at a good viewpoint and then headed down as clouds began to gather. We only saw two groups of backpackers the whole day and no other dayhikers on the Constance Pass trail. It was great having solitude after the mobs at Mount Townsend on our last hike.