Quinault Rainforest

Friday morning, we hiked near the lodge around the Quinault Area.  Behind the lodge, we got on Resort Trail (#854.4) that led to Wright's Canyon Trail (#854.3).  Soon, we crossed a bridge at Gatton Creek Falls.

From the bridge, some upper cascades were visible.  I climbed down to see more cascades.

And I could peer over the top of the main drop of the waterfall, but there didn't seem to be any way to continue down.

Shortly after the bridge, we turned right on Upper Gatton Creek Loop (#854.2) and passed through a beautiful rainforest.  There were some gigantic Douglas fir trees.

There were some red-belted conk mushrooms growing on a dead log.

This trail made a 1.5-mile connector between Wright's Creek Trail and Quinault Loop.

It was really beautiful.  We saw more stairstep moss along the trail.

There were a few banana slugs; we had to watch out to not step on them.

We also saw some bright orange chicken of the woods.

At Quinault Loop (#854), we turned left.

It was a short ways to a bridge over Cascade Creek with some little cascades.

Cascade Falls was just downstream.

We scrambled down to the creek from the trail for a view of this scenic waterfall.

Then we turned back on Quinault Loop and started heading down towards the lodge.

After crossing South Shore Road, we could see Falls Creek Falls.

Crossing the bridge over to the campground, we could get down to the creek for a frontal view.

It falls in two streams but the water level was low.  From here, we hiked back to the hotel and checked out then parked at the Quinault Rainforest Trailhead.  Taking the interpretive loop, we passed another immense Douglas fir.

At Willaby Creek, we turned left on Quinault Loop to go down to Willaby Creek Falls.

It's only about 15 feet, but really scenic tucked away in the little gorge.

There was also a view from the trail.

We returned to the interpretive trail and hiked the short loop, following along Willaby Creek initially.

The trail then looped back around away from the creek.

The redwood sorrel had very large clover leaves.

The massive trees and thick vegetation along the trail was really beautiful.

We finished up the loop and then continued on down South Shore Road.

Our next stop was a few miles up the road just before the bridge over Merriman Creek.  Merriman Falls could be seen from the road.

It was a really nice waterfall.  With low water, it was easy to scramble and climb around on the rocks at the falls.

The mossy rocks were really beautiful.

After some pictures, we continued on.

Continuing up South Shore Road, we parked at the Fletcher Canyon Trailhead.  The scenic trail led past some big boulders and into the rainforest.

The forest was very lush around here and in a quarter-mile or so, we crossed into Colonel Bob Wilderness.

There was some chicken of the woods growing here.

The trail continued up way above the canyon.

Eventually, it drops down into the canyon, but we were running low on time, so turned around after about a mile.

But we had one more stop before leaving the area, less than a mile up the road just before the bridge over Bunch Creek.  We could see Bunch Falls from the road.

I scrambled up on the rocks for a close view, but there was a lot of vegetation in the way.

We climbed around for a while then finished up.

Now it was time to leave the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.  We made the long drive to North Bend and checked into Roaring River B&B just before sunset and enjoyed the hot tub before going to bed.