At 47 miles and 11,000-12,000' of gain, the
Skyline-North Fork Quinault loop is an
Olympic National Park classic. Alpine lakes, miles (upon miles) of ridges and basin traverses, difficult trails, old growth and wildlife; it ticks all the boxes for a great trip. It is, however, quite hard (at least for me)...
The Three Lakes and first part of Skyline Ridge trails to Kimta Peak are in very good shape. Beyond Kimta, until reaching the Low Divide, the primitive trail lives up to its name. No route finding issues (besides following dueling sets of cairns through the "moonscape"), just technical and slow with a few sketchy steps. Seems like blowdowns have been cleared in the last couple of years as well. The North Fork Quinault trail also was more technical and slow than we expected, and with quite a few crawl-under or climb-over blowdowns. The ford is a nonissue (shin deep).
Big thank you to
Richard for joining me on this one.
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| Bridge felt like overkill, though the debris flows suggest otherwise; North Fork Big Creek |
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| North Fork Big Creek |
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| World's largest Yellow (Alaska) Cedar |
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| Bear Grass out along the entire route |
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| Three Lakes |
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| Tarn along Skyline Trail |
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| Tarn along Skyline Trail |
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| One of a group of three male elk |
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| Chomping grass, near Three Prune Camp |
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| In the very-well-marked "No campfires beyond this point" zone...arg! |
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| Headed toward Kimta, with the Queets River |
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| Mt. Olympus massif from the south |
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| Pacific Ocean under a layer of fog |
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| Queets River |
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| At the northern end of Skyline Ridge (west bump of Kimta Peak) |
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| Puppy Dog Richard's boundless energy is always evident |
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| Turning east below Kimta Peak, headed for the old burn at right |
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| Wonderful spring just before the burn |
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| Working through the burn... |
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| ...and then the "Moonscape"; with Mt. Noyes, Mt. Seattle and Mt. Christie and the Low Divide in the middle |
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| Dropping to Seattle Creek, with Noyes and Seattle |
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| East face of Point 5689' |
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| Looking back at the north-eastern section of what we traversed |
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| Mt. Christie, 6177' |
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| Quinault side of the Low Divide |
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| It takes a lot to beat this one up |
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| North Fork Quinault "ford" |
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| Up and around easier than Richard's beta; |
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| Racing the sun down the North Fork Quinault River |
