Olympic National Park

With the unusually warm and dry spring weather last weekend, we took a hike on the North Fork Skokomish Trail in the Olympic National Park.  The full trail is about 12 miles beginning at the Staircase Ranger Station and ending around the base of Mt. Steel.  We did a little less than half the trail.    This area being all ancient forest made the hike like being in a Transcendental painting.

The trail began winding along the staircase rapids of the Skokomish river.

After about an hour of hiking, we began to climb above the river.  Slowly, the unmelted snow of winter began to appear.  First, there were just small piles of snow on the edges of the trail and in the shade.  Soon after, we were walking through snow pretty consistently, but it was low enough to hardly get boots wet.  Eventually, we were in consistent snow of about one foot.  Luckily, the more prepared of us (not me) had remembered to bring our gators.  More prepared for snow, we set off for about 2 or 3 more miles trudging through the snow and dealing with large trees blocking the narrow trail.

We passed over many streams leading down to the river.  Most of them were small enough to wade through on rocks.  One in particular was running quite deeply in a small gorge.  The trail continued over across on a log bridge, which was essentially just a fallen tree that had been flattened on the top and a handrail added.  This was by far the scariest part of the hike.

By midday, we reached Donohue Creek where we stopped for lunch.  Unlike hiking in the east, where it is easy to get to a summit - or multiple summits - in one day - hiking in the Olympic National Park is a more remote and lengthy experience.  To truly reach any kind of height, multi-day trips are necessary.  However, even a day hike where the farthest destination is just a creek can be an amazing experience.  Sitting next to Donohue Creek with such a mix of ancient trees above me was like being in one of those Transcendental paintings where two small people are sitting at the edge of a cliff in a vast and lush green landscape.  It made me feel small and at peace.