1. Olympics NORTH
Updated September 2011
See also: Food, Sex & Death on the Dungeness
See also: Getting Loster
- Dungeness Forks/Buckhorn Wilderness
- Hurricane Ridge / Grand Valley
- Barnes Creek / Aurora Ridge
- Olympic National Park Coastal Strip
- Bogachiel River Trail
- Hoh River Trail
- Olympic Hot Springs/Appleton Pass
This transit sequence gives the rider access to the high alpine country of the north side of the Olympic National Park, via the Rivers Dungeness, Elwha, and Soleduck, as well as Barnes Creek, among others. Use it to reach Olympic Hot Springs, and famed Hurricane Ridge.
Use it to visit ONP’s coastal strip, fifty miles of rugged, wild Pacific beaches. Use it also to access the rain forest drainages of the Olympics’ west side, the Bogachiel, Queets, and world-famous Hoh River.
Trail Options:A - Dungeness Forks/Buckhorn Wilderness
Bus stop to trailhead: 6.5 miles
At the northeast corner of the Olympics, explore shadowy river valleys leading upland to alpine vistas. It’s easily accessible: you’ll leave the bus just before it reaches Sequim. But you’ll have a moral dilemma to consider: you can stay outside the Park and get lost in either segment of the Olympic National Forest’s Buckhorn Wilderness, but to cross over into the National Park you should have first registered at the NP HQ in PA (which means you’ll leave the highway at one in the afternoon, instead of shortly after nine in the morning). Four cool hours of morning foot travel are a tough advantage to let go of. Or you might consider this instead as an exit route.
If you are in possession of an Olympic National Park Wilderness Pass, and get stopped by a Park ranger, he or she might simply register you on the spot. If not, they might issue you a ticket. My suggestion would be to call the Park HQ at PA before your trip and ask. (I hate to start this piece with such a conundrum, but, working as I am, east to west, it’s just a quirk of geography.)
After leaving Port Townsend on the Jefferson Transit 8, leave the bus at Sequim Bay State Park. About 100 yards south of the state park entrance, find Louella Road and head upslope. You’ll shortly reach a junction with Palo Alto Road; go left, following signs directing you to Dungeness Forks.
From here your options open up:
You can head southwest up the Grey Wolf River (Trail 834) on ONF land for about half a dozen miles before entering the Park proper.
You can go south, either along the boggy and shadowy Creek trail (Trail 833), or Trail 830, which climbs up along a ridge.
You can parallel these two on Road 2880 and 2860 for seven miles or so (you might even be able to hitch a ride). When the road ends you could head on up the Dungeness River Trail to its end.
You could cross Marmot Pass, look back at the entirety of the Dungeness drainage, cross over into the Big Quilcene River drainage and drop down to the highway on that side (catching JT 1 there).
You could head into the Park, cross Constance Pass, and drop down the Dosewallips River (JT 1 again).
C - Hurricane Ridge / Grand Valley
Bus stop to trailhead: 22 miles
It’s actually 25 miles, but don’t let that frighten you. From downtown PA, you have to take the CT 20 uphill to the National Park HQ to register, so you’ve already taken care of three very steep miles. And beyond that, almost everyone heading up the Heart O’ The Hills Road is going into the Park, too, so the likelihood of being offered a ride is high.
F - Barnes Creek / Aurora Ridge
Bus stop to trailhead: 0 miles (Barnes Creek end)
2 miles (Soleduck Rd. end)
You’ll hardly meet anyone on this trip. It’s a ridge trail, not very far into the Park. The views are north – to Lake Crescent far below, and to the Strait of Juan de Fuca beyond that, where container ships the size of ants motor into Puget Sound. To the south, catch glimpses of Mount Olympus.
The east end of this trip originates at Barnes Creek, along Lake Crescent. The bus makes a stop here: don’t miss it – the road is narrow along the lake, with no opportunities for turnouts for the bus – the next place the bus stops is at the end of the lake five or six miles away. Tell your driver you want out at the Marymere Falls stop.
Hundreds of people visit the falls each day in tourist season; hardly anyone ventures much beyond it. An easy ford of Barnes Creek gains you solitude (as of Fall ’08, there is a log bridge across the creek there, but few expect it to last, as there’s a huge logjam just upstream that seems destined to soon obliterate it).
At the route’s other end, trailhead is reached by disembarking the CT 14 at the Soleduck River Road, and walking up the road about two miles.
H & I - Olympic National Park Coastal Strip (North Section)
Bus stop to trailhead (south end): 5 miles
Trailhead to bus stop (north end): 9 miles
This stretch of the Park extends from Rialto Beach, across the Quilleute River from La Push, north to Shi Shi Beach, the northern terminus of the Park. It is thirty-three miles long. I list this one in this direction, rather than from the other direction, because if you were to leave the bus (CT 16) in Neah Bay at 7:15 PM – even at the summer solstice – you’d probably not make it to Shi Shi before dark. And those last two miles of muddy former jeep track – even at summer solstice – are one continuous boot-sucking mud hole best not attempted in failing light, let alone the dark. So do yourself a favor: take my word for it and walk this one south to north.
Continuing from Port Angeles, take CT 14 all the way to Forks and wait for the CT 15 heading to La Push. Ask the driver to let you off at the Three Rivers Resort, from which point it’s an easy five mile walk down the Mora Road to Rialto Beach. Then head north into the wildest chunk of ocean beach left in the Lower 48.
You will see deer. And seals and sea lions in the surf, or perched on rocks nearby. Eagles are everywhere. When the tide goes out, everything hustles down to the beach for lunch; watch the sand for tracks. This is a world treasure – people come from all over to see this – and you can get there on the bus in a day.
Pay close attention to your tide chart; ignore it at your peril. Seriously. It’s a lot easier to walk the beach if you do it during a period of low (called “spring” tides), but be aware that those low spring tides include high tides six hours or so later. Best to plan your progress with the tides, rather than fight them, as the ocean always wins.
Give yourself at least five days to do this one (I’ve often done it in four, from leaving Seattle to returning to Seattle, which actually means one evening, two very full days, and one more morning of a nine mile walk before 8:45 AM). Unless the latter sounds fun and challenging to you, I wouldn’t recommend it.
The journey is not everyone’s idea of a walk on the beach; very little of it is sandy beach. It isn’t that warm that much of the time. Much of it is cobble beach, made up of stones the size of your fist into which you sink a foot or so with each step. There are miles of rocky, seaweed and algae-covered boulders, some of which are slippery only when wet, and others which slippery enough to cause you to fall on your ass all of the time. You quickly figure out which are which.
I & L - Olympic National Park Coastal Strip south
Bus stop to trailhead (north end): right there
Bus stop to trailhead (south end): 11 miles
This stretch of the Park extends eighteen miles from the mouth of the Hoh River north to just upslope of the Quileute village of La Push (not actually a native word, but a slurring of the French, la bouche, as in the mouth of the river).
To reach the north end, catch CT 15 heading to La Push from Forks (if you left Port Angeles at 1 PM, arriving at Forks at 2:30, you’ve about an hour—the 15 leaves at 3:35). If you haven’t yet registered with ONP, you can do so right at the Forks Transit Center; the Park maintains an office there (somewhat limited hours—phone ahead).
Boarding the CT 15, tell the driver you’ll want off at the Third Beach trailhead. It’s right on the side of the La Push Road. The Park starts in gorgeous old-growth cedar and spruce forest. You’ll get your first glimpse of beach in an hour or so.
This eighteen mile section of beach would more accurately be called ‘coastal forest with intermittent pockets and occasional stretches of beach.’ There are several places where you have to climb ladders, and pull yourself up (and let yourself down) with anchored ropes along steep dirt slopes well above the beach. I’ll translate the maps for you: where it says “Ladder” it often actually means “ladder, ladder, ladder, rope, rope, rope, and then rope, rope, and ladder, ladder, and ladder again down the other side.” In wet weather it can be a treacherously slippery adventure.
But don’t let that scare you off. Between those vertical pieces lie short, magnificent stretches of wild beach, some rocky, several sandy. Eagles are as numerous as pigeons are in the city, seals watch you from the surf. Tide pools beckon for your exploration.
Two creeks must be crossed at low tide; Goodman Creek (three crossings, actually. It’s a rather complicated meander. Take a pair of sneakers and explore it; you can’t reach the actual mouth of the creek, but you can travel several hundred yards along its tidal estuary), and Mosquito Creek.
South of Mosquito Creek there is a beautiful stretch of tidal pools, extending south perhaps a mile, which can be explored at low tide, but then you must regain the bluff above the beach. At anything other than a minus tide, after crossing the creek you must head immediately up onto the bluff, where you remain, slogging through thick brush and mud for about five miles. Many choose to end their trip south before hitting that, and turn back north to exit the Park the same way they came in. There’s an argument to be made for that: after that long bunch of mud you drop back down to rocky beach for about two miles, then you’re out of the Park.
I’ve often done the whole section by disembarking West Jefferson Transit at the Oil City Road, walking the eleven mile road to the mouth of the Hoh River, and heading north, exiting at the Third Beach trailhead. The Oil City Road was splendid solitude, I’d often see elk, deer, or coyotes. There are only two or three houses near the end of the road, so the likelihood of cadging a ride is remote, unless you’re spotted by a car almost full of backpackers.
But in the summer of ’06, extensive timber cutting began along the drainage. My last time down the road featured no less than thirty logging trucks hauling out logs, and almost as many gravel trucks hauling in rock (which I interpret to mean that they were building more roads to haul out even more logs). By the end I was covered with dust, scared half to death from near misses with rampaging trucks, and saddened. The thrill, it seemed, was gone. I haven’t gone in that way since.
The choice is yours: by not entering from Oil City you’re really not missing that much of the Park. Once you head north from Oil City you’re only on the beach (and a rocky beach, at that) for a couple miles, and then you’re up in the woods, losing your boots to eternal mudholes, without even a glimpse of the beach, until you reach Mosquito Creek.
Timewise, you might be better off entering this section from the north end, at Third Beach, heading south as far as Mosquito, and then turning around and leaving again via the north. There’s that nice section of tidepools beginning just south of Mosquito Creek, but those can be done as a day trip before heading back north.
Be cognizant of the tide tables, and know that the Mosquito Creek crossing, and to an even greater extent, the Goodman Creek crossings, can only be accomplished at a low to medium tide ( 0 to 3 feet). If you cross at low tide, then fiddle around on the other side for a while, you might have to wait until the next low tide (twelve hours later) or close to it, for your return. If your initial crossing was noonish, and your gear is on the other side, you might now realize your predicament. Heading upstream to find another possible crossing site is...problematic...in a old growth temperate rain forest. Trust me.
Plan accordingly.
J - Bogachiel River Trail
Bus stop to trailhead: 5 miles
You’d be amazed at the number of people who’ve never heard of the Bogie (as it’s called by locals). It lacks the southwest-to-northeast orientation of the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault Rivers, and so, doesn’t capture wet weather systems as completely as those rivers do. It resultantly lacks some of the features of a true rain forest, as in profusions of mosses, lichens and general sogginess. But it has some damn big trees, a nice river trail, and comparatively fewer people.
At the Forks Transit Center you will catch the West Jefferson Transit (WJT) shuttle at 2:45 PM, heading south along Highway 101. You’ll leave the WJT about ten miles south of Forks, at the Undie Road, just opposite the entrance to Bogachiel State Park. I don’t know how the Undie Road got its name; there’s bound to be a story there (just as there almost certainly is for the Kitchen-Dick Road outside of Sequim).
At about four miles the Undie Road heads steeply uphill to reach the trailhead. Or you can simply work your way over to the river along the remnants of the old trail; I’ll leave that to your trail morality.
At about fifteen miles the trail moves onto the north fork of the river, and eventually connects with the Soleduck and Elwha trails. You could also cross over southward to the Hoh River. You could even ford the Bogie (in late summer) and bushwhack along the main branch of the river, off-trail, if seclusion is what you’re looking for.
K - Hoh River Trail
Bus stop to trailhead: 19 miles
Okay, so it’s nineteen miles…but you can do it. There are a couple of pay campgrounds about five miles from the highway if you want to start the following morning (you’ll leave the West Jefferson Transit bus at about three in the afternoon), but first…stick your thumb out, affect a limp, look tired and sorrowful: the road is extremely well-traveled. You’re likely to get a ride.
The Hoh River Trail is as flat as a board (but muddy as hell until the end of June, at least) for the first ten miles, but it’ll be hard to keep looking at your feet anyway. Huge trees, cedars and spruces and big-leaf maples, abound, festooned with all sorts of rain forest lichens and saprophytes and fungi. This place is a world treasure, and so, is a tough place to find solitude. But on the bright side, you’re likely to meet folks from almost anywhere.
Unless you really want to walk those nineteen miles back out to the highway, you might consider taking another route back out, such as the Bogachiel, Soleduck, or Barnes Creek.
You could reach the Hoh either by the North Route or the South Route listed next chapter. If by North, you could sign in at either Port Angeles or Forks. By the South, you’d have to register for your visit at the Hoh Ranger Station at the trailhead. If you don’t manage to cadge a ride in time to reach trailhead by closing time, camp at the campground and register the following morning before starting up the trail. By the South Route, you’d reach the Hoh River Road about an hour (that’s two or three miles) earlier.
E - Olympic Hot Springs/Appleton Pass
Note: As of September 2011, the road to this option is completely closed to both and foot and auto traffic, due to the demolition of both dams on the Elwha river. This project will take three years. Olympic Hot Springs and Appleton Pass can be reached via other trailheads including Sol Duc and Barnes Creek.
Bus stop to trailhead: 10.5 miles
Trailhead to Pass: 5 miles
Disembark Clallam Transit 14 about twenty minutes west of Port Angeles. Tell your driver you plan to head up Olympic Hot Springs Road – they’ll throw you out at the proper spot. Head up the road, along the Elwha River. It’s well-paved, but you’ll gain almost 2000 feet in elevation along the road. Smile at the drivers; you might be able to grab a ride.
But now: a warning. The Hot Springs sound inviting, but here’s the downside. They consist of a dozen or so shallow, mud-bottomed pools about the size of your bathtub at home, scattered over an acre or three. And by shallow, I mean only about a foot deep. And murky and sulfurous.
But the real downside is that they’re so easy to get to. People with cars only have to walk about two miles, along the abandoned and crumbled end of the paved road, to reach the Springs. The site has attracted a real bad crowd: people who bring their dogs into the Park, and worse still, the creepy guys with dark sunglasses who want to see naked chicks. The pools are isolated, and in a heavily-wooded area. Women have been raped there.
Keep all that in mind if you decide to hitchhike.
But Appleton Pass is the real destination, in that it’s a stepping-off point for a whole bunch of different possibilities. Check it out on your topo map. You can find several tiny alpine lakes tucked here and about. You can drop down into the Sol Duc drainage, or visit the Seven Lakes Basin. You could drop down onto the Bogachiel or the Hoh. Without a car, there’s no reason to head back out the Elwha; catch a bus at the bottom of one of those other rivers.
Other options:
B - Deer Park, D - Elwha River (Closure of the Elwha Road does not affect access to this site. Trailhead at Whiskey Bend is still open), South Fork Hoh River, G - Sol Duc, M - Queets River
Seattle to Olympics (North Route) – Monday through Friday only
| Seattle Ferry to Bainbridge Is. leaves | Coleman Dock | @ 6:10 AM | arr. Bainbridge Island | @ 6:45 AM |
| Kitsap Transit (KT) 90 leaves | Bainbridge ferry terminal | @ 6:57 AM | arr. Poulsbo Transit Center | @ 7:20 AM |
| Jefferson Transit (JT) 7 leaves | Poulsbo Transit Center | @ 7:30 AM | arr. SR 20 & Four Corners * | @ 8:24 AM |
| JT 8 leaves | SR 20 & Four Corners | @ 8:45 AM | arr. Sequim Transit Center | @ 9:21 AM |
| Clallam Transit (CT) 30 leaves | Sequim Transit Center | @ 9:43 AM | arr. Port Angeles Transit Center | @ 10:20 AM |
| CT 14 leaves | Port Angeles Transit Center | @ 1:00 PM | arr. Forks Transit Center | @ 2:30 PM |
*Jefferson Transit 7 actually continues to the Port Townsend Transit Center, but turnaround time is so close that the driver will usually recommend disembarking at Four Corners and waiting for your connection with JT 8 there. Ask your driver: they’re all very helpful and will usually ask if there’s anyone onboard trying to make these connections. If necessary, they will radio ahead to hold your next bus.
This is the sequence of buses that you can use to reach all points on the north side of the Olympic National Park, as well as the Park’s coastal strip along the Pacific Ocean. It is effective Monday through Friday only, excluding all major holidays. You cannot use it on weekends. Some of the routes do run on Saturdays, on a very limited schedule, but there are gaps, particularly through Jefferson County.
There are later sequences of buses, starting with catching the ferry at 9 AM, and again at 10:55. These will work for you if you’re not heading far beyond Port Angeles, but beyond that point it will not allow you to make further connections the same day, and will cut into your trail time before dark. (If you plan, for example, to get a room in PA or Forks, or camp near the highway to resume travel the following day, these later buses could work for you.)
Before entering the Park, they require that you register for your trip in person. There are two places along this route at which you can do so; one is at Forks, right at the Transit Center (this ranger station has very limited hours, so it would be a very good idea to call ahead and make certain they’ll be open when you arrive). The other is the Park Headquarters at Port Angeles (PA), which is open pretty much all the time. This will be your most reliable option.
To reach the ONP Headquarters, catch the CT 20, leaving at :25 and :55 after the hour, as soon as you arrive in PA. This will take you about a mile uphill; get off at Race & Boulevard (you’ll catch the return bus at the same stop, heading in the same direction, in 30 minutes, or an hour. Note the time) and walk two long blocks uphill to reach the Headquarters. Register at the small trailer behind the main building, then trot back downhill to catch the CT 20 back downtown.
You had some time to kill anyway, as the bus westward doesn’t leave until 1:00 PM. If you’ve any time left you may wish to grab some lunch. If you plan to head up toward Hurricane Ridge, you might as well have grabbed lunch right when you hit town, so that you can leave from HQ and just keep going up along that same road (more on that in the section on Hurricane Ridge).
Olympics to Seattle (North Route)- Monday through Friday only
| Clallam Transit 14 leaves | Forks Transit Center | @ 9:30 AM | arr. Port Angeles Transit Center | @ 10:50 AM |
| CT 30 leaves | PA Transit Center | @ 12:00 N | arr. Sequim Transit Center | @ 12:35 PM |
| JT 8 leaves | Sequim Transit Center | @ 12:45 PM | arr. Port Townsend Transit Center* | @ 1:29 PM |
| JT 7 leaves | Port Townsend Transit Center | @ 3:24 PM | arr. Poulsbo Transit Center | @ 4:27 PM |
| KT 90 leaves | Poulsbo Transit Center | @ 4:37 PM | arr. Bainbridge | @ 4:57 PM |
| WS Ferry leaves | Bainbridge | @ 5:30 | arr. Seattle Coleman Dock | @ 5:05 PM |
* Westbound, you may recall, the connection was so tight that you couldn’t ride the bus into downtown Port Townsend. Now, on the eastbound leg, you have almost two hours to kill. Grab lunch, spread out your tent and sleeping bag to dry and/or air out in the park adjacent to the transit center. Hell, take a nap on the lawn (be aware: the park surrounding the lagoon adjacent to the transit center has a large transient population living in the brushy areas of said park; I’d recommend staying out of the bushes, and not leaving your gear unattended. So as far as spending the night there if you’re stranded, apparently it’s allowed, but you wouldn’t catch me doing it).
Again, this sequence of buses works only Monday through Friday, excluding major holidays. It will not get you through on weekends.
There is an earlier sequence of buses, as well as one later, leaving Forks at 7 AM, and 11 AM, respectively. The latter one will get you back to Seattle around 7:30 PM.
Fares:
| Washington State Ferry | $6.70 (westbound walk-on passenger; eastbound is fare-free) |
| Kitsap Transit | $2.00 |
| Jefferson Transit | $2.50 (day pass--includes out-of-county boarding fee). |
| Clallam Transit | $2.00 (day pass) |
| West Jefferson Transit | .50 |