The Quinault River

I’m recovering from a five day backpack into Enchanted Valley, so I’ve spent most of the day installing Apple’s Lion and polishing up photos taken on my new Powershot SX230HS. The trip was my Christmas present from Dawn and her family, as I’ve said I’d love to do at least one more backpacking trip with my grandkids before I have to give it up for car camping. Luckily we had lots of people to share the weight because I found trudging 13 miles generally uphill for two days with a 40-pound pack, day hiking another 5 miles and returning the last two days as challenging as I’d like.

Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry my usual cameras with all the other things needed to survive comfortably so I purchased a small camera to take as good of pictures as I could. Since it was new I didn’t take full advantage of its capabilities, but enough of the pictures turned out that I’m pleased with the results and glad I made the purchase. Who knows, since I survived this trip I might even manage a few more in the next year or two — the awesome views inspired me that much.

Although the trip is often referred to as the Enchanted Valley hike, the Quinault River and its tributaries dominate the hike from the very first crossing.

Gorge

So much so, that it brought back fond memories of long-ago hikes in the Columbia Gorge’s moss and fern covered banks.

Fern-Covered Cliffs

As we walked up the valley we constantly crossed small streams that fed the river, losing

Stream

and gaining elevation

Bend in the River

even at our highest point in the hike.

Crosssing the Creek

Despite forecasts of rain, the five days were rain-free even though it sometimes seemed that we were living in the clouds. Several nights awoke to the sound of rain, only to realize it was really the sound of the omnipresent waterfalls.

6 thoughts on “The Quinault River”

    1. They’ll be more pictures of Santi in a few days. He had a very good time I think. We all did, even the mosquitoes.

      P.S. Thanks for the beautiful birding guide.

  1. I very much like these forest, stream and river photos with your new Powershot.

    My little camera (and the only camera I have been using since around 2006) is a Powershot SD550.

  2. What was just around the bend was 6 foot high snow covered mountains, the reason we had to change our original reservations to hike in the high country.

    Oh, and a damaged bridge that would probably have been too scary for me since I could barely handle the undamaged bridge we crossed to get into Enchanted Valley.

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