The Enchanted Valley, Olympic National Park

This past weekend I took a much anticipated trip to the Enchanted Valley in the Quinault Rainforest in the Olympic National Park. It is in a remote corner and requires a bit of effort to get to, both driving and walking. I drove in Friday afternoon and got a bit of a later start than I wanted, but I still had plenty of time to make it to the halfway point and set up my camp for the evening. 

I briefly considered setting up camp here, at Pony Bridge, which is less than a quarter of the way to the Enchanted Valley. But since there was plenty of daylight left, I pushed the extra 3-4 miles to O'Neill Camp.

I haven't seen a proper thunderstorm in well over a year, since we don't really get thunderstorms here in the Olympia area. But Friday night I was awakened to some lightning and thunder. Luckily, I stayed dry. The sun came out early Saturday morning, which gave me a chance to dry out the tent while I enjoyed my coffee and packed up my camp. 

I headed out for the Enchanted Valley, another 6-7 mile hike from O'Neill Camp where I spent the night. Along the way I encountered this massive tree trunk. The trail runs right by it, so it is hard to miss. It had to have been one tall tree!

I finally made it to the Enchanted Valley a bit before 1 in the afternoon which was a touch later than I had hoped. That, and the fact that a landslide with high snow-melt river run off at a river crossing prevented me from walking up the Anderson Pass. Well, those couple of reasons and the fact that I don't own crampons, an ice ax, or possess mountaineering skills since the pass is still under snow!

So I decided to explore the Enchanted Valley a bit in my free time. There is a chalet there that works as the Ranger Station during the summers. The Ranger that works there has to pinch themselves daily that he/she gets to call this place "home" while they "work". The walls of the valley are pretty sheer, with waterfalls all over the place, Shrek and Fiona would feel right at home here.

I dipped my feet after my climb towards Anderson Pass in this glacier-melt river (East Fork of the Quinault River). COLD does not begin to describe it! Refreshing doesn't either, but I guess invigorating does.

Have a wonderful day everybody! I'm planning a trip to the northern part of the Olympic Park again this weekend, just in time for the Lavender Festival in Sequim. I'm planning on making a dash to Sol Duc, riding my bike from Hurricane Ridge to Obstruction Point (or as far as I can because the road hasn't opened from all the snow just yet), and hopefully making it up to Deer Park. That's a lot of places to see, so I'll probably have to scale that back a bit. I'll post photos next week as I have time. I hope you've enjoyed these photos, they were fun to take.

Marc