We originally intended to do a 5 day/4 night trip from the Elwha River Trail through North Fork TH on the Quinault but cut it short by a day/night due to prolific mosquitoes from Low Divide down through the Quinault Valley. We were dropped at the Madison Falls parking lot on the Elwha River and hiked up to the Whiskey Bend TH, then through to Lillian River Camp our first day. Well-maintained, fairly easy trail, beautiful campsites at Lillian River. Second day to Hayes River RS where there are two campsites on the river (several more possibilities in the surrounding area). Again, beautifully maintained. A trail crew was at Hayes RS and gave us some information on the trail ahead. Our third day, we encountered overgrown trail past the Hayes River Bridge but had no problem following the trail through berry and rose brambles. Burned sections from the Low Divide Fire a few years back started before Camp Wilder and posed no issue. The first river crossing (Elwha) was cold and swift but only knee deep. Toward Chicago Camp, the trail got interesting--overgrown, less travelled, so we checked map/GPS several times to make sure we were in the right place. The mileage noted on a sign at Wilder said 5.0 miles but GPS recorded upwards of 1/2 mile added to that. Chicago Camp is not well-marked or maintained and has an older style privy. Several of us forded knee-height water while another found a log upstream here. Past Chicago through to Low Divide, the trail gets very steep and even less maintained until it reaches Low Divide, with many overgrown areas on the switchbacks up the ridge between river valleys; there are several trees down and areas where previous water bars or steps have partially or fully washed out. Low Divide was beautiful but rife with mosquitoes. We originally intended to spend our 3rd night here but decided to continue on to Sixteen Mile Camp because of the bugs. The meadows of Low Divide had a lot of early summer runoff, and if you use specific/alternate footwear for water crossings, I would advise keeping it on from Lake Margaret until you reach the far treeline (past the Skyline Trail cutoff). The North Fork Quinault Trail is considerably less maintained than the Elwha River Trail. We encountered many trees down, several washout sections, and continual mosquitoes down into Sixteen Mile Camp, where we spent the 3rd night--great sites on the river, and the largest one is where you cross the North Fork Quinault River to continue down (knee height, cold, fast). Our 4th day we decided to hike all the way out from Sixteen Mile Camp due to bugs. The trail crew we'd met at Hayes RS had noted "100 trees down on the North Fork Trail," and this was entirely accurate. At one point, due to a large downed log being angled steeply down the grade, we had to push packs through a space below the log and wriggle through one-by-one.  There are two bridges that have been damaged to tree-fall, and though useable, require extreme caution. Stream crossings are frequent, and most of us ended up with wet feet/clothes. The road out from North Fork TH is slow but passable, although low clearance vehicles should take care.

Regarding traffic, we encountered more than half a dozen groups up through Hayes River RS on the Elwha River Trail. Past Hayes River RS, we saw only a single solo hiker going the opposite direction at Low Divide until the following day, when we passed two people close to the North Fork TH. We used bear cans but not bear wires, and though we saw tracks/scat while on the trail, had no disturbances in camp.

All in all, the Elwha River Trail up through Hayes River RS I would recommend for anyone, even backpackers with only modest experience, as it is well-maintained, somewhat well-travelled, and has few obstacles. Beyond that, I feel that the conditions presented far more challenges.  I think most of us were interested in returning to the North Fork Trail/Low Divide in a less buggy season, but they are closing the North Shore Rd July 7-Sept 22 (and South Shore Rd does not provide access due to a washout). Trail maintenance on the North Fork Quinault is sorely needed but may be impossible with road access issues this summer.

We did one night of backpacking to Wolf Bar. The road to the trailhead is rough with sizable potholes. Our sedan bottomed out several times. The trail was quite brushy and overgrown in places to the extent that I caught my foot on vines and tripped on some rocks in places that I couldn’t see. I’ve hiked this trail before and never seen it in this condition. There is a place where they have built a new trail to avoid a dangerous ledge but it wasn’t marked clearly enough and we started walking out on it before realizing our error. 

Other than those issues, the campsite was great and we had it all to ourselves. Sitting by the river was incredibly peaceful and it looked like the day users had taken care to leave no trace. 

Three-night loop hike in the North Fork Quinault area with camping at Elip Creek, Three Prune, and Three Lakes campsites. This is a beautiful area of Olympic National Park with river valleys, mountain meadows and everything in-between. Get out here before road access is closed off for the rest of the summer! Also thanks to everybody who has helped keep these trails accessible!

All of the trails we traveled had brushy overgrown sections. You will be rubbing up against ferns, huckleberries, and pine branches. All of the trails also had downed trees. Most of these were no big deal but a few required climbing, crawling, or detouring through dense shrubbery. The middle section of the Elip Creek trail (between 2000-3000 ft) had extended sections of brush that were head-height or taller and a few spots where downed trees can make it difficult to relocate the trail. There were still some decent snow patches on the slope just south of the junction between the Elip Creek and Skyline trails.

I'm not sure we took the optimal route getting down to Big Creek through the washed-out area - depending on how you approach it, it could be anything from extremely annoying to dangerous. The trip report from May 2024 has a good description of how to get under the problematic tree - there is a small gap under the tree you can squeeze through on your stomach or back. On this day the rocks around the gap were wet, slippery and muddy. Or you can cross on the steeply-angled tree itself, or climb above and over the tree. These both have risks of falling. Maybe there are better options as the water level in the creek drops.

The frogs at Three Lakes were amazing and put on a concert all night long!

We hiked in to Wolf Bar on 6/16, then spent three nights at Halfway House before coming back to Wolf Bar on 6/20 for one last night out on the North Fork. Really loved exploring the gravel bars (or are they boulder bars? plenty of decent-sized rocks to hop), especially the one at Halfway House whose southern end offers a close-up view into a canyon. Plentiful ripe wild strawberries at Wolf Bar. We heard a lot of Pacific wrens, varied thrushes, Swainson's thrush, warblers, Pacific nuthatches, warbling vireos, kingfishers,  woodpeckers (hairy or downy, not sure). At both sites we found absolutely lovely campsites on the gravel bars, under alder and willow. Some bear and elk scat, hard to tell how old it was--we guessed a few days to a week--but no sight of actual bears or elk during our visit. The only wildlife that gave us any annoyance were the noseeums at Halfway House--also some mosquitoes which hovered but didn't bite. 

We day-hiked up the trail nearly to Trapper, where a massive tree had fallen along the trail and presented a hassle to clamber over. Up to that point, though we'd been warned by a ranger about the large number of blowdowns on the trail and the two damaged bridges, we found the trail easily passable. But just before Trapper, the debris got much worse and we decided not to try to work our way through it. The damaged bridges were safely passable by sticking to the undamaged side. Both creek crossings (Wild Rose and Elip) were fine, water knee-high at the deepest, rocks not too slick. One problem we saw on the first few miles from the trailhead to Halfway House: overgrowth narrowing and even in a few places obscuring the trail. This beautiful trail definitely deserves some love in the form of maintenance!  

We were able to confirm today with the Port Angeles Wilderness Information Center and Quianult Rainforest Ranger Station that the North Fork Quinault River trailhead is open, but that South Shore Road is still closed, which can make things pretty confusing. They advised visitors to take North Shore Road as a detour to the Graves Creek and North Fork trailheads.

Heads up: There's an upcoming closure of North Shore Road in July that will restrict access to both trailheads unless South Shore Road opens first.