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A wilderness gateway to alpine meadows, jeweled lakes and ice-carved peaks. The valley has a scenic loop drive and trails through temperate rain forest in both Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest. The Quinault Valley has a number of short hiking trails, including a 1.3 mi loop to the old Kestner homestead, and another that winds through groves of bigleaf maples. More info can be found through the Quinault Rain Forest Ranger Station. The Quinault Valley ends at Lake Quinault.
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To preserve nearly an entire glacially carved rain forest river valley from source to sea, President Truman added the narrow Queets corridor to Olympic National Park in 1953. Glaciers and snow on Mount Olympus feed the Queets River on its descent to the Pacific. This quiet area is a popular place to spot wildlife including salmon, deer and elk.
Enormous trunks reach for the sky, lacy limbs stretch to the sun, grooved bark is sanctuary to tiny creatures in the vast cathedral of Douglas-firs that dominate the forests on this side of the Olympic Peninsula. A variety of hiking trails navigate through the Staircase area along the Skokomish River and the nearby forests.
of precipitation each year fosters a lush, green canopy of old-growth trees and a floor blanked with thick mosses and ferns. Watch for herds of elk in the area, roll down the window (even if it is raining) and take in the smell of what seems a recently drained underwater world. Stop by the visitor center, walk the Hall of Moss interpretive trail, or hike further along the Hoh River all the way to Mount Olympus.