The Olympic Peninsula in Washington, I am embarrassed to say, is one place that I have not explored, even though it is so close to home. Sure, I have been to Port Angeles several times, but the peninsula has so much more to offer, and the off-season is one of the best times to see it. I met up with Kitt in his Toyota and Tad in his Chevrolet at the Tahuya River Horse Camp near Belfair, Washington on December 29th where we compared notes and made plans for the next three days. The weather was mild but dipping into the low 30F / 0C’s overnight, but no frost on the ground. There was enough firewood left in the camp for a fire that night, and we made a point to collect firewood along the route. Little did we know then, how easy that goal would be. Although not freezing, it was still crisp enough that night to run my space heater for a while, before turning in. I do not talk a lot about the gear that I use, because gear is overrated, but one brilliant feature of the Ecoflow Delta 2 Max that I use, is that I can turn the outputs on and off from my phone, from inside my sleeping bag. It sounds like a small thing, but it sure makes a big difference when camping in the cold.
The next morning, we headed south from Belfair to Skokomish, before turning north into the Olympic National Forest for the historic “High Steel Bridge” over the Skokomish River. Built in 1929, this railroad-turned-vehicle bridge sits 375 feet / 114 meters above the river, and its low guardrails will make you feel every bit of that height. The emerald green river flows through a narrow and very steep canyon, with a waterfall from a tributary dropping into the river just beneath the bridge. It is a very dramatic scene and well-worth parking and walking out onto the bridge to take-in the experience. From the bridge we continued north towards Brown Creek Horse Campground, where we curved around back south towards the border of the national forest, then headed west through a series of forest roads. We were slowly gaining elevation on forest road 2372 as we made our way towards the Satsop River at 1,557 feet / 475 meters.
Not long after crossing the Satsop we ran into our first tree. Downed trees are common here in the Pacific Northwest, so we were well prepared with several chainsaws which we used to clear the obstruction and collect some firewood for the campsite that night. These downed trees are not the best firewood, though, since they are still wet, so we would save room for older, seasoned wood from “slash piles” leftover from logging operations along the route. This wood is ideal for getting the fire going and hot enough to burn the wetter wood from downed trees. There is nothing better than a hot campfire when it is cold and wet. We did not run into any issues with snow on forest road 2372, which tops-out at 2,500 feet / 762 meters but is well-traveled. We did take a short spur road, 2372-480, looking for a potential campsite with great views, but got turned away by snow at the 3,000 foot / 914 meter level. We could have plowed through, but we still had a long day ahead of us and did not want to get caught at the end of this steep and narrow road and not be able to turn around. We finished-up forest road 2372 and turned south on forest road 2270 along Wynoochee Lake. Continuing west, we rolled into the tiny hamlet of Quinault at 3:00 PM and that was where we ran into our first roadblock. A major storm had rolled through the area on December 10th and we had already experienced some of the fallout from that event, but in this case the road, South Shore Road, was simply gone. There is a North Shore Road and a South Shore Road, but the two no longer meet due to a huge washout. It was late in the day, so we returned to Highway 101 on the west side of Lake Quinault and headed for Kalaloch Campground at the beach. We were quite a sight, three muddy off-road vehicles rolling into a campground full of RV’s and vans. It was a clear evening, though, and the sunset was incredible.
We woke up on the morning of New Year’s Eve and made a hasty exit back to Lake Quinault, to pick up where we had left off, the day before. We had some ground to make up, owing to the washout. Just prior to the lake we turned north on Prairie Creek Road for a big loop up into the Olympic National Forest, then west through the Olympic Experimental State Forest and back down to Highway 101, where we would cross the Queets River into the Clearwater Corridor Natural Resource Conservation Area. We were climbing towards Yahoo Lake at 2,400 feet / 732 meters but were not seeing much snow. The lake, however, was partially frozen over which added to the gorgeous setting. Many times, on these trips, it is the little things – like a tiny 9-acre mountain lake – that end up being the most memorable. After getting into the campground at dusk the previous night, the goal this New Year’s Eve was to establish camp early so we worked our way west from Yahoo Lake on forest roads to Upper Clearwater Campground, where we would spend the night on the Clearwater River. This was a fantastic campground on the river and there was only one other couple there. This was their second New Year’s Eve at the campground, and I could see why they came back.
It was a quiet New Year’s Eve with no fireworks, no music, no dropping ball. Just the sound of the river and the crackling of the fire. Like the couple that we met here, this might become a tradition for me, too.
On the morning of New Year’s Day, we continued north towards the Hoh River and the entrance to the Olympic National Park. We had only made it about two miles when we ran into another landslide. This would have taken too long for us to clear, and the danger was that as material was cleared, more of the hillside would come down. We were forced to backtrack south and then west to the Hoh Mainline Road, then forest road C-2000 which connected us back to our route. We were climbing up to get over a ridge, before dropping down to the Hoh River and by 10:00 AM we were into the snow. We were also the first ones here, so we were plowing new ground through about six inches of snow. The climb made momentum a challenge, so I was initially doing a lot of backing-up and plowing forward until the snow stopped me, and I had to back-up again for another charge. Soon, though, the road levelled out, and I was able to maintain a sufficient level of speed to maintain forward motion. This was the first time that I had done any real “snow wheeling” since I was a kid with my Jeep CJ-5, so it really brought back a lot of memories from my youth – and made me realize how much better my current Jeep was. I have front and rear locking differentials on this Jeep vs. my old CJ-5 which had open differentials on both ends. I was able to plow through most of this road with just the rear locked, but there was a section at the top of the ridge with deeper snow that required also engaging the front locker.
The good news was that once we topped-out at around 2,800 feet / 853 meters we were on an older logging area with several slash piles that provided plenty of seasoned firewood for the night’s campfire. We got the saws out and made quick work of loading up the three vehicles with firewood. In times like this, it is always nice to have some larger vehicles in the group, because there is no room in the Jeep for firewood. I can get a few pieces in the Trasharoo bag on my spare tire, but that is it. We continued down off the ridge on the Hoh Mainline Road which terminated at Highway 101 at Allen’s Bar, which is a $5 campground on the Hoh River. We would return later to spend our last night here, but now we needed to get up Upper Hoh Road and into the Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic National Park. One the way, we stopped at the Peak 6 Adventure Store for some good conversation and t-shirts for the family. Yes, I spent New Year’s Eve in the mountains and all my wife got was a t-shirt, but she was okay with it! Continuing into the park, we passed several elk herds and then spent some time around the visitor’s center. The park had just re-opened the previous day, from the December storm – so fortune was smiling on us, this New Year’s Day.
The Hoe River was still raging. We spoke with a local fisherman who told us that the flow gage was pegged at 1,000 CFM but he estimated that it was twice that, and during the December storm it was 50 to 60,000 CFM. We would see evidence of this back at Allen’s Bar, where there were numerous trees down on the far riverbank from the recent flow. It was a great night on the bar with the sound of the river and a great campfire in Kitt’s aluminum firepit and heat reflector. Again, it is nice to travel with people that have enough room in their large vehicles for these luxuries! The Olympic Peninsula was a great end to 2025 and a great beginning to 2026. I will meet-up with Kitt again in southern Nevada, for the southern section of the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route.