Enchanted Valley / Olympic National Park

Thanks, Ian! This brought back memories of a trip we took there in 1990. We spent a wonderful evening in the chalet at the invitation of the resident ranger and his young trainee, who baked us chocolate chip cookies, played cards with us, and told lots of tall tales. Steve, the young trainee, was particularly gifted at spinning yarns; he told of the marvelous awe-inspiring sight of going out of the chalet in the morning to see the flocks of flying duck-billed mountain beavers landing in the river on their annual migration. Sadly, we were apparently just a few weeks too late to be able to take in the spectacle, but hearing him describe it was almost as good as being there!

I didn't see any pictures of them in your trip report, just elk, deer, and squirrel, so I assume you missed them too.

Nice report. Ladies of Perpetual Consumption? Isn't consumption another name for cancer? That doesn't sound good…

Twice this year I've visited relatives in Seattle and planned on doing Enchanted Valley but weather didn't cooperate. Still snow at 5000 or 5500 feet here so good places are too difficult, maybe I should try again.

I have heard of bears at Enchanted Valley more than any other PNW location. I don't think bear spray is necesary though.

I thought there were some difficult stream crossings. But it appears there are bridges across difficult crossings?

I wonder where the snow is if I wanted to go a little further?

consumption is TB aka tuberculosis.

Nice trip report Ian. I'd like to hit the Olympics some day.

perpetual TB doesn't sound much better

but if it's perpetual, at least you won't die from it : )

By reputation, Enchanted Valley is a great spring hike. There was no snow at all on or near the trail. We saw some white stuff a few thousand feet above us. I think you'd have to worry about rain more than anything else.

I think bear spray is similar to bear bagging/bear canisters; it's as much for the bear's safety as it is for the hiker's. I'd rather not carry the weight but just like my off-trail life, I do my best to pretend that I'm a responsible adult in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. I'll probably compromise by finding the smallest/lightest one that can reasonably do the job and save my larger one for when I'm in Grizzly country.

None of the river crossing were challenging. We had to hop rocks/deadfall on a couple of the smaller ones. I guess if the water level was higher then I could see how a couple of them would be dicey.

Mike,

Well worth the trip and we saw a few families on the trail. Nice thing is the permits are more flexible so you can stop at one of the earlier campsites if your kid/s get tuckered out before Enchanted Valley. I'd like to check out Hoh rain forest and there are a couple treks I'd like to do in that area. Wish it was a bit closer though. Driving 10 hours roundtrip is a bummer for an overnight hike.

Thanks

Maybe I'll try going up to Anderson Pass. I was on Dosewallips a couple months ago. Maybe I can get to as far as I went, a couple miles up West Dosewallips

If I had to do it over again, I'd like to do this one as a three day hike.

Day one hike in to Enchanted Valley and set up base camp.
Day two day hike/explore up to and beyond Anderson Pass
Day three return home.

I prefer loop hikes but unfortunately I don't see how that can be done here without some serious road walking.

DK,

Ha ha! Unfortunately no duck billed beaver migrations were witnessed by either of us! That's too bad as it sounds like a sight to behold.

How far away was the river bank from the Chalet in 1990?