Hiking Olympic National Park
By Erik Molvar

Heart 'o the Hills Trail

This 2-milc trail leads eastward from Loop E of the Heart 'o the Hills 
Campground. It offers no mountain views, but does travel through some of the most 
stately old growth forest on the Olympic Peninsula. This ancient woodland is made up of 
silver fir, red cedar, and Douglas fir, with some of the largest trees exceeding 8 feet 
in diameter. Old trees often die from the top down, and the broken-topped giants 
provide the unique nesting habitat for the northern spotted owl, one of the most 
celebrated and controversial of the endangered species. The trail stays fairly level 
for the majority of its length, where numerous small rills are choked with the giant 
leaves of devils club and skunk cabbage. As the widely spaced giants give way to a 
younger stand of hemlock and Douglas fir, the path descends steadily into a narrow 
creek valley. The trail ends rather ignominiously at the Park boundary, where a 
clearcut has been pushed right up the edge of the Park, swallowing up the trail in the 
process.