NB: This post is backdated.
Tim and I took a 27 mile, one night backpacking trip to Enchanted Valley in Olympic National Park. I had a prior commitment on Friday night, so we only had Saturday and Sunday to get to and from the trailhead and complete our hike. Tim did some research on overnight trips within a reasonable drive of Seattle that also weren’t on fire (2017 was a bad season for wildfires), and this one fit the bill. It was the perfect weekend hike.
We took the 13.5 mile out-and-back trail that starts at Graves Creek Trailhead and ends at Enchanted Valley. To get to the trailhead, you have to drive to Lake Quinault, which doesn’t take that long. However, after reaching Lake Quinault, you have to follow an 18 mile dirt and gravel road to the trailhead, which takes about forever and a half (53 minutes according to Google Maps).
We left Seattle at 5:30am on Saturday. After arriving, we took some time to visit the ranger office for permits and maps and check whether we needed a bear canister (we did), so we didn’t start our hike until around 10am.
The trail is mostly flat, with a total elevation gain of 1700 feet in 13 miles. The first two miles are at an incline, but it isn’t steep. After that, the trail is flat with some rolling ups and downs. We found it to be a pleasant, beautiful, trail through an old growth forest. Along the way, we almost ran directly into a male elk (I christened him “Melk”) who was hiding in the bushes near the trail. He wasn’t too frightened, but backed away slowly once he noticed us. We heard elk bugling as we hiked, but we didn’t see any other wildlife besides some birds. We made better time than we thought we would and reached Enchanted Valley at least an hour or two before sunset.
Enchanted Valley felt sheltered and serene. There is a famous chalet in the valley that was used as a rest stop for hikers and horseback riders in the 1930s. It serves as an emergency shelter now. There are some other mountain trails that start from Enchanted Valley; they might even come close to some glaciers, if I recall correctly. If I were to do this hike again, I would budget 3-4 days to explore the rest of these trails.
I enjoyed my first no-cook trip. For lunch and dinner we had tortillas with a variety of fillings: tuna, cheese, peanut butter. We had Pro Bars for breakfast and snacked on Clif bars, beef jerky, Snickers, Pop Tarts, and Welch’s fruit snacks throughout the day. Water was plentiful and clean throughout the trail and at our campsite; the trail follows a river. There were a few mosquitoes, but not enough to seriously annoy me.
The night was uneventful, the weather was perfect, and we zoomed back to the trailhead the next day. I think we got there around 2:30pm. We gave a hitch to a hiker visiting from Europe who was heading back to Lake Quinault, and we made it back to Seattle in time to shower and relax before going back to work on Monday.
You can find more information about the trail here:
WanderLiz 