Deer Park Loop

In August 2014, we did a four-day, three-night backpack trip on the Deer Park Loop in Olympic National Park, Washington. John was 61 and I was 60. The trails on the east side of the Olympic Mountains are notorious for being steep, so I had some apprehension about our lack of conditioning going into this trip. We had not backpacked since April. I also had some concerns about stream crossings. However, we encountered another backpacker who reassured us that stream crossings would not be an issue.

This first day the trail crossed back and forth over the Gray Wolf River, and most of the bridges were substantial logs with railings.

We camped the first night in the woods. The next day we continued along the river for a time and I was a bit anxious crossing one of the bridges. While it looked safe enough, it exhibited a definite vibration as John crossed it ahead of me. I’ve never felt anything quite like it. I felt like the log was alive and that it was messing with me.

We were happy to be hiking in the Pacific Northwest again, especially as the weather was so good. We thoroughly enjoyed hiking through the lush forest.

But we love seeing mountains, so we were not sorry to begin the climb to Gray Wolf Pass.

We always enjoy views from passes and the one from Gray Wolf Pass was no exception.

We then did the long descent into the Dosewallips River Valley …

… enjoying more great views along the way.

We camped that night on the Dosewallips River.

The next day we headed up …

… to Lost Pass.

We enjoyed hiking through the high meadows …

… as well as seeing the views …

… including this one of Mount Olympus.

The next pass we hiked over was Cameron Pass.

Once over the top, we could look down into the valley below.

We were treated to the sight of patches of brilliant color within the familiar green and grey.

After crossing the valley, we entered the woods and began the long climb up to the next pass. We had read that there could be downed trees that we would need to go over or around. However, the trail had been recently cleared, so we had no trouble (except for the steepness). We continued on and eventually got out of the woods and back into high meadows. The wildflowers were gorgeous.

The next pass was Grand Pass, where we would camp for the night.

I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve written about the great view or used the words beautiful, lovely, and gorgeous. If we are going to visit places such as this, then I need to expand my vocabulary.

We camped that night on Grand Pass. There is a well-established, but more exposed, site well off to the left. It was occupied, so we made do with a smaller site just visible to the left within the low trees. There was a tarn not too far on the other side of the pass where John was able to get water.

We were treated to a lovely sunset …

… and the morning brought more expansive views.

We were visited by a very inquisitive deer. She was probably hoping to be fed or impatiently waiting for us to leave so she could seek out salts from human urine deposits.

After breaking camp, we headed down the other side of the pass to the next valley …

… passing streams …

… and meadows along the way.

We did the final climb up toward Obstruction Point. As there is a parking lot and trailhead at Obstruction Point, we were not surprised to encounter day hikers. Once there, we knew we had at least another seven miles to go to get back to Deer Park, but the grade would be more gradual than we had encountered the preceding days of the trip. We started the long traverse and it kept going …

… and going …

… and going.

Anytime we began to think of it as tedious, all we had to do was look toward Grand Valley.

We began to get views of Sequim, Dungeness Spit, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as all the way to Canada.

We were tired, but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other and finally reached the parking lot.

All photos from this trip are on Flickr.