This is one of the longest temperate rainforest trails in Washngton State that's open to mountain bikes (~13 miles worth). If you like the Olympic Nat’l Park valleys like the Hoh, Quinault
This is one of the longest temperate rainforest trails in Washngton State that's open to mountain bikes (~13 miles worth). If you like the Olympic Nat’l Park valleys like the Hoh, Quinault, etc, and want to *bike* a trail like that, put this one on your list. This is very much like those, but without the crowds.
However, maybe one of the reasons it doesn't get much traffic is the inconvenient fact that, over the course of its roughly 13 miles, the trail fords the river about 20 or 25 times. Most years, the only feasible/sensible time to ride the trail is late summer and early fall, when stream flows are lowest. On 9/6/2017, the USGS Humptulips gauge at US-101 showed 65 CFS, and most of the fordings on this trail were very doable, about a foot deep.
Some years this trail gets more maintenance than others; check the Olympic Nat’l Forest website trails page, or WTA, etc, (and of course this page) for recent reports.
More info here, on the ONF site: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/olympic/recarea/?recid=47779
How to Find It
From Hoquiam, go north on US-101 about 25 miles to FS 22 (Donkey Creek Road). Turn right and drive 8 miles to the junction with FS 2204. Turn left on 2204 (note, as of September 2017, there was no sign here, but it's a major road, you can't miss it).
From there, there are four options of where to start the trail:
- About 4 miles down FS-2204, just before crossing the WF Humptulips River gorge, is the first trailhead, the Gorge Bridge Trailhead.
- Or, cross the river, turn right, and go another roughly 4 miles and turn right at FS 2204-080 (a sign here says "West Fork Trail Access") to drive about 1/2 mile to get to the Switchback Trailhead; note, low clearance vehicles might have a problem on this road.
- Or, keep going another 2 miles to the Petes Creek Trailhead, and go downhill on that 1 mile to get to the WFH trail.
- Or, go another 3 miles to the Campbell Tree Grove Campground, which is a great place to camp, and you can start from there too.
All of the above except the Switchback Trailhead require a NW Forest Pass.
Upstream/north of the CTG campground, the trail is open to bikes, but supposedly very narrow, brushy, etc; probably more trouble than it's worth.
Typical Conditions
Expect some areas of brushiness and some areas with lots of roots and uneven terrain; this trail is mostly maintained for hikers/horses. Some sections are really fast and flowy though.
Also, this "trail" fords the river on average about twice per mile, and this includes some sections of walking along the cobbles of gravel bars (again, best only to go in late summer or early fall).
Unless you go mid-week, expect to see horses; make sure to get off your bike and be good to the horses and their riders; they're the ony reason this trail gets much maintenance!
Turn by Turn
See "How to find it" for the four places to enter the trail, and the main section, for link to ONF page for this trail.
It's probably best to go to the furthest upstream one, the Campbell Tree Grove campground, and then travel down-river, so when and if you get tired of all the brush(?) and river fordings and all, you can bail out on one of the side trails... Petes Creek at ~4 miles, or the Switchback (080 road) TH spur at ~8 miles, or the final (south end) trailhead at ~13 miles ... and ride the road back to your car, if you don't feel like riding an out-and-back.
Somewhere at about 7 miles (going downstream from Campbell Tree Grove) is what seems to be another spur, but on the east side of the river; not sure where this one goes.
At all of the frequent river crossings, there is orange flagging on the other side marking the trail.
