A Hiking Adventure in Olympic National Park

When National Park Service ranger Marc Fournier talks about this park, he can’t hide his enthusiasm.

“It’s a great place to be; and it always gets better,” says the 23-year-old Fournier, who was reared in Berlin, N.H., as he looks out over Honeymoon Meadows. A small solar panel used to recharge his Park Service radio battery is the only anomaly among the sprinkling of wildflowers.

The Olympic Mountains, a jagged group of peaks 35 miles west of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula, is a few hours’ drive and a world away from the city.

Yet, they can be seen easily from downtown, and Chief Sealth, for whom the city was named, may have had this lovely land in mind when he wrote to former President Franklin Pierce in 1854:

“There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of an insect’s wings. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the Red Man.”

His words symbolize the contrast between the bustling seaport city and the glaciers, rain forests and steep meadows of the park, which is now more populated by hikers than by Native Americans. A hiking adventure here can last from several hours to several days, but the best way to see the park is to walk deep within it and camp out.

Where to Begin

A good place to begin is the Dosewallips (pronounced DOE-see-wallips) River Ranger Station, 14 miles from Route 101 on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula.

At the ranger station you’ll be expected to fill out a back country use permit detailing your points of entry and exit, campsites and primary method of travel (you may see llamas and other pack animals along the way).

You’ll also be swamped with warnings about the dangers of fires, the quality of the river water, hypothermia and other problems. With a little forethought, however, these pitfalls can be easily avoided.

Though the streams are crystal clear, cool and inviting, they may contain giardia, an organism carried in the feces of some mammals that affects the digestive system.

The official National Park Service policy is that all stream and lake water must be heated or treated before drinking. The recommended method is boiling for one minute, which means that you will have to carry enough stove fuel.

The National Park Service has established a stoves-only zone (no open camp fires) above certain altitudes in the park. When I was there, no open fires were permitted anywhere because of the dry conditions.

About two miles after you leave the ranger station, you’ll be faced with the most difficult choice of the trip.

To the left is the West Fork of the Dosewallips River; the trail leads up to Honeymoon Meadows and the Anderson Glacier beneath Mt. Anderson. To the right is the Dosewallips River Trail, winding past Mt. Constance, Mt. Mystery and Mt. Deception to Hayden Pass, some 13 or so miles.

Excellent Camping Spots

I went left for no particular reason. There are two excellent camping spots between the ranger station and Honeymoon Meadows--Big Timber and Diamond Meadows--and countless others tucked in between stands of huge conifers. Wherever you camp, you’re bound to hear the river nearby, beckoning the hot and trail-weary body to take a cool dip.

The walk to Honeymoon Meadows passes through giant fir and spruce trees, quiet meadows with purple lupine and salmonberries, and occasionally across the thundering West Forks Dosewallips River. Other hikers pass with friendly smiles and a quiet hello, and then the wilderness belongs to you again.

Honeymoon Meadows is about nine miles from the ranger station, and roughly 3,000 feet above it. This is a logical campsite before the trek up to Anderson Glacier.

If you’re lucky, you will meet Marc Fournier somewhere along the trail. His days are taken up by repairing trail erosion and patrolling climbing routes through the glaciers. And he spends a lot of time talking to visitors. He tries to talk to every camper at Honeymoon Meadows, maintaining visitor contact and National Park Service visibility.

After a night in the meadow, Anderson Glacier is an easy walk about an hour-and-a-half up a steep (1,400 feet) winding trail. You need only bring a knapsack. Be sure to have plenty of water from this point on, especially if it’s sunny and hot. You are in the sun much of the time, and it will dehydrate you very quickly.

The trail ends atop a gigantic moraine at the base of Anderson Glacier, a quarter-mile from the bottom of the ice and with a spectacular view of Mt. Anderson (7,321 feet) above the glacier. Mt. LaCrosse, directly behind, rises sharply to 6,417 feet from steep scree slopes and pitched meadows.

The glacier itself rises 1,200 feet in just over a mile toward the near-vertical summit cone of Mt. Anderson. Where rocks have rolled onto the glacier, the sun has warmed them and they have burned deep pockets into the snow cover. The sunlight makes dappled patterns across the pocked snow; an ice-cooled breeze refreshes the visitor.

People Are Scarce

To the right of the moraine is a wooded ridge rising toward Mt. Anderson that has several flat areas excellent for camping.

Though there is a small pond nearby for water, it is less clear than the water at Honeymoon Meadows, and some sediment may remain in it after it’s boiled.

On the other hand, there are fewer people camping here (none during my stay) and the view from the moraine is unparalleled. All around, mountains jut upward like broken teeth, and the moonlight washes over them through the night.

The next morning I walked back to the ranger station and began the drive of an hour or two to the west side of the Olympics and the Hoh Rain Forest.

If you don’t see any other part of the Olympic National Park, go to the Hoh. It is the most beautiful example of a northern latitude rain forest you’re likely to encounter anywhere in the United States. Great webs of club moss hang from the branches of towering hemlock, spruce, Douglas fir, and cedar trees.

From the ranger station 19 miles east of Route 101, walk 10 miles along the Hoh River Trail, getting farther and farther from the nearest road on a path that gains only about 400 feet of elevation in that distance. The forest is dark, cool and quiet, with a carpeting of ferns and clover. A couple hundred feet up, the treetops whisper in the breeze.

Due to the flat terrain, camping sites abound along the Hoh River, which is grayish green from mountain silt and peppered with boulder-strewn, birch-dotted islands. The river is loud and omnipresent.

The second day out from the Hoh Ranger Station you should make Glacier Meadows, the end of the trail at the base of Mt. Olympus, 17 1/2 miles from the road.

Beginning at about 12 miles, you gain altitude quickly, climbing more than 3,000 vertical feet the last third of the hike. Glacier Meadows is about 2 1/2 miles shy of the three peaks of Mt. Olympus (at 7,965 feet, the West Peak is the highest in Olympic National Park).

Drop your pack at the camping area at Glacier Meadows, but beware of mountain goats, who will happily chew off a shoulder strap or a boot tongue to get salt.

Massive Scale

Two trails lead from Glacier Meadows to different parts of the Blue Glacier, one of several ice rivers streaming down Mt. Olympus. It is worth walking up both trails, even though they go to the same glacier. From one you can see how the Blue Glacier got its name; from the other you can see its massive scale.

First go up the Blue Glacier Trail about 1 1/2 miles to the moraine. Spread out in front of you, under the massive bulb of the Snow Dome and Mt. Olympus’ West Peak, is the Blue Glacier, much of which is black from falling debris. It rises 3,400 feet in less than three miles, curling around the north side of the mountain. Rivulets gather strength in the icy crevasses and build to a thundering roar somewhere far below the glacier.

Check out the mountain goats and marmots on the moraine, then turn around and descend to the Terminus Trail and take that to the end, about half-a-mile. You’ll see a radiant, translucent blue glowing from within the cracks.

At this point, the end of the trail, you may want to linger in the Hoh Rain Forest to marvel at the massive fallen trees and lush vegetation. Half the fun is finding a prime camping site by the river that nobody else knows about.

For more information, contact Olympic National Park at 600 Park Ave., Port Angeles, Wash. 98362, phone (206) 452-4501.

If you plan to climb any of the mountains in the area, you should have, at a minimum, crampons, an ice ax and a party to climb with. Equipment of all kinds can be rented at Recreational Equipment Inc., 1525 11th Ave., Seattle, phone (206) 323-8333.