Enchanted Valley is one of those magical places I’ve been waiting for a while to do. Part of it is because the frequent encounters with black bears and then because this area is known for its beauty and gigantic trees so when Pete posted this trip for the group I jumped right in. My idea had always been to camp at the chalet but since this wasn’t my trip, I followed Pete’s plan that ended up being setting up a vase camp somewhere along the route and then explore for the day. That worked pretty well to get to know the area and even gave us the opportunity to explore of trail for a bit. The only unfortunate thing was the smoke. With all the firs in the region, the sky remained orange for the whole three days. Not sure if that was the reason or because the temperatures were pretty warm that we didn’t see bears. Still, it was an amazing trip and an area I’ll probably visit again.
Day 1: Trailhead to Pyrites Camp
After several hours on the car, we got to the trailhead at around noon and quickly grabbed our gear and started on the trail. I knew it wasn’t going to be a long hike and looking at the destination elevation it didn’t seem it was going to be that hard either.
Most of the trail follows the Quinault River pretty close crossing it a couple of times. As you get into the forest, you’re quickly welcomed by gigantic trees, the sound of rushing water and some limited views of river valleys. Not far from the trailhead though you start getting tired and suddenly you realize there’s lots of ups and downs so even though the destination is not too high, the hike to it was going to be a workout. As we hiked up, I lost count of how many creeks we crossed, some dry and some running very low, before we got to camp. Finally, we got to an opening with a lot of campsites on both sides of the trail. Looking at a map we realized we were at Pyrites which was Pete’s plan. We scouted the sites and set up camp for the night. From our sites, we had direct access to the river so we spent a lot of time next to the water while we had dinner, build some cairns and looked at the surrounding scenery
Day 2: Exploring from Pyrites Camp to Oldest Hemlock Site
We woke up to a very smoky day. From our camp, and later from the trail, it was hard to see anything in the distance. We also saw the sun come from the ridge as a bright orange ball. I can’t say that breathing the smoke was nice as you could certainly tell. That also made the day get warm pretty quick. Even with that, we headed upstream passing even more creeks and getting more magnificent forest views that looked a bit different than what they would normally look given the orange glow. We only saw a couple of openings that, on clear days must offer nice views of the ridge line above. Then we got to high bridge. As the name implies, it’s a high bridge hat has a single handrail. Crossing is not for the faint of heart or those who don’t feel at ease with a high drop off on the side. Further from there we could see the valley opening towards were he chalet is. We meandered thru the forest until we finally saw our first stop. The historic chalet sits on the river bank but not where it used to be. About a year or two ago, the river was eating out the flank and was threatening to take the chalet with it. On a huge effort by the Forest Service, he entire structure was moved a couple hundred feet inland to preserve it. Looking at the structure, we imagined it might have been an incredible task. We stopped there for snacks and to admire some waterfalls on the faces of the mountain on our side. It was a pretty sight even though it was very smoky. We spread out afterwards so I went further up until I found a side trail to a site where he oldest registered hemlock is. I can’t say I was impressed. Yes, it was a very big tree but nothing more. On the way, there though I did notice across the river some snow caves that were almost calling my name. On the way down, I made a point to find a route and see if I could cross the river to explore those a bit. I found an animal path from the trail that got rough quickly but eventually took me to the river only to find Pete, Steve and Cynthia already there. They had found another path on a trail to the river so they didn’t have to bushwhack. We looked for places where we could hop on rocks and cross the river but found none. Not wanting to take our shoes of we opted for crossing like that and then letting our shoes dry. The crossing was easier than what I expected and from there was just a scramble up to the mouth of the first cave. That cave was not very long and had three tunnels inside. We walked in and took some pictures despite all the water coming from the ceiling.
After that, Pete, Steve and Cynthia left heading back to camp and I went uphill trying to take some extra pictures. I was recalling a second set of caves not too far from where I was so I bushwhacked my way to those as well. After some pictures, I headed back to the river and the trail. On my way, back to camp I made several detours to small waterfalls to take some more pictures. I remained in the lookout for bears but never saw any.
Day 3: Pyrites Camp to trailhead
Since we had a long drive back home Pete asked everyone to be ready to hike out early in the morning. By 8 AM we were already on the trail for the hike out. The orange continued but his time, since we were heading out, we just marched our way back to the trailhead. It certainly was a nice outing that needs to be repeated in better conditions.
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