CONSTANCE PASS TRAIL Length 8.5 mi/12.7 km Access Dosewallips Trail USGS Maps The Brothers; Mount Deception Agency Olympic National Park This route begins at a junction with the Dosewallips Trail (2.5 mi/4.0 km from the road's end; 2182 ft/665 m) and climbs to Sunnybrook Meadows, then over Del Monte Ridge and Constance Pass, beyond which it contours above the headwaters of the Dungeness River. Although continuously uphill to the ridge crest, the trail is one of the smoothest in the Olympics. It is not rocky, muddy, or eroded by streams. The Boy Scouts at Camp Parsons, near Hood Canal, named Sunnybrook Meadows and Del Monte Ridge in 1926. They named the ridge after Billy Del Monte, their West Indian cook. The trail makes the steep ascent above the Dosewallips River via long, sweeping switchbacks. The slopes are thinly clad with Douglas fir and a bit of western white pine, and the forest floor is open in many places, but usually thickly overgrown with salal. As the trail climbs higher, views appear; one looks up the West Fork Dosewallips, which is bordered by snow-clad peaks-Elklick, LaCrosse, and Diamond. Wellesley Peak looms to the northwest. The sound of the Dosewallips comes up faintly from below. Ascending the spur between Sunny Brook and Lower Twin Creek, the route alternately looks over the Dosewallips or across the slopes below Del Monte Ridge to Inner Constance (7339 ft/2237 m). The forest is denser here, the trees bearded with lichen, the rhododendrons abundant. A perennial seep spring near the trail (2.0 mi/3.2 km; 3600 ft/1097 m) is the only place where water can be obtained between the river and Sunnybrook Meadows. The forest changes to subalpine growth, then the trail breaks out into Sunnybrook Meadows, an expanse of meadowland on the south slope of Del Monte Ridge. The meadows are luxuriant with lupine, beargrass, cow parsnip, and huckleberry and broken intermittently by groves of subalpine and silver fir. The trail crosses several streams, which, collectively, form the headwaters of Sunnybrook. Across the Dosewallips Valley rise The Brothers and the ridges west of the peak. Sunnybrook Camp (2.5 mi/4.0 km; 5000 ft/1524 m) is located beyond the last creek, in a copse of silver fir and Alaska cedar. The trail now climbs through meadows, where the hiker sees an expanding panorama of the Olympics, although Del Monte Ridge blocks the view to the northeast. Another campsite (3.5 mi/5.6 km: 5650 ft/1722 m) on a grassy knoll beyond a tarn overlooks the mountains to the west. A brook flows nearby. Higher up, the path switchbacks across meadowland and patches of finely broken shale. Low-growing juniper sprawls among rocks darkened by lichen. The crest of Del Monte Ridge (4.0 mi/6.4 km; 6500 ft/1981 m), where the trail crosses, is a wide expanse of gravel and thin soil covered with tufts of grass and piles of broken rock. Marmots live among the boulders and rend the air with shrill whistles when hikers approach. A number of peaks are visible from the ridge, including Deception, Mystery, Little Mystery, and Inner Constance. The valley of the West Fork Dosewallips trends to the southwest. The cross-country route to the Mount Mystery area begins at this point. One leaves the trail here and follows the ridge to Gunsight Pass (6350 ft/1936 m), so named because a sharp needle rises in the center of the notch between Mount Mystery and Little Mystery. The peaks arc composed of basalt and thus contrast with the sandstones and shales of the ridge. Of special interest is Deception Basin, an alpine area bounded by Deception, Mystery, and Fricaba. A glacier and snowfield lie adjacent to each other on the north slope of Mount Mystery, the melt water from them merging to form Deception Creek. One side of the stream is milky with glacial silt; the other side is clear. Beyond the crest of Del Monte Ridge, the trail descends as it follows the narrow ridge. Barren talus slopes and perpetual snowfields-the source of the Dungeness River-lie on the northern slope, and directly ahead are the cliffs of Inner Constance and Mount Constance. The Brothers rise to the south. After rounding a spur, the trail overlooks a basin to the north where Home Lake occupies a hollow in the mountainside. Constance Pass (5.0 mi/8.0 km; 5850 ft/1783 m) marks the eastern terminus of Del Monte Ridge, where it abuts the cliffs of Inner Constance. The contact line-between the volcanic and sedimentary rocks are plainly evident. The route now angles to the left, and the trail descends the North Slope, crossing shale slides and meadowland. Home Lake (5.4 mi/8.7 km; 5350 ft/1631 m) has no visible outlet, but a stream flows into it on the upper side. The lake's level fluctuates, leaving a ring around its margin in late summer. The setting is nonetheless scenic: the tarn's clear, greenish water reflects the rocky hillside to the west, and the neighboring slopes are covered with rough boulders and a few subalpine firs. Below Home Lake the trail descends through subalpine forest, where huge chunks of basalt lie scattered among the trees. Lupine is abundant; in late summer the clusters of blue flowers contrast with the dark rock. The trail goes by a large snowfield, crosses a rock slide below the cliffs of Mount Constance, climbs slightly, then contours northward at the 5000 ft/1524 m level through open country and subalpine forests. On the right Warrior Peak overlooks the trail; left is a view across the upper Dungeness Valley and back to Constance Pass. The trail crosses into the national forest (7.6 mi/12.2 km: 5000 ft/1524 m) and ends at Boulder Shelter (8.5 mi/12.7 km; 4900 ft/1494 m) in a three-way junction with the Upper Dungeness Trail and the Upper Big Quilcene Trail.