OLD DOSEWALLIPS TRAIL

Abandoned fragment, no longer maintained
Length 1.5-mi/2.4 km
Access Dosewallips River Road (FS Road 2610)
USGS Map The Brothers
Agencies Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park

Fifty years ago the Dosewallips River Road ended at Elkhorn Camp (now Elkhorn 
Campground), and the DosewallipsTrail began at that point. At the Lower Jumpoff, 
about midway between Bull Elk Canyon and the present national park boundary, the 
trail crossed the river, then followed up the south side, intersected the Muscott 
Basin Trail, and recrossed the river at the head of Dosewallips Falls. This crossing 
was known as the Upper Jumpoff, and the Jumpoff Ranger Station was located here.

The ranger station and the bridges at the crossings have been gone for years. 
Today, of course, the road follows the river to Muscott Flat, and the Dosewallips 
Trail begins there, that part of the old trail on the river's north side between 
Elkhorn and Muscott Flat having been destroyed by the road construction. However, 
one can still find the abandoned trail on the south side between the two crossings.

This section begins in the national forest but soon crosses into the national park 
near the Lower Jumpoff. In the national forest, it is so overgrown as to be virtually 
nonexistent, but in the national park it is in reasonably fair condition. Because 
the only feasible approach today is via the Upper Jumpoff, the (tail description 
begins there and goes downstream. The Upper Jumpoff (1500 ft/457 m) is located at 
the packer's station just above Dosewallips Falls. At this point the river can be 
safely forded in late summer and early fall.

On the south side one can find the old trail among the firs and cedars at the base 
of the mountainside. The trail climbs away from the river, going by a boulder about 
12 feet high. The logs that lie across the path have been cut out and near the boulder 
the trail is covered with old, moss-covered puncheon.

The trail climbs to a junction (1700 ft/518 m), beside a mossy rock, with another 
trail, where a board is nailed to a tree. The legend has faded away, but it apparently 
indicated that the Muscott Basin Trail led to the right. The old rivers trail goes 
left, or downstream, toward the Lower Jumpoff.

This area was swept by fire in the past, and the slopes are now covered with 
thick stands of young trees. Rising among them are a few old firs with blackened 
trunks. The trail climbs above the river, and then goes by a couple of knolls that 
are covered with moss and kinnikinnick. Here one can look down the Dosewallips 
Canyon.

As it winds through the forest (a mix of trees of all sizes), the trail crosses 
a glade covered with ferns, vanilla leaf, and big leaf maple, and works its way 
through mossy boulders to Tumbling Creek, which flows over a bed of solid rock. 
The route now becomes brushy. The next stream, Brokenfinger Creek, may have been 
appropriately named; more than likely someone broke his finger while crossing the 
slippery rocks and logs.

The trail has countless logs lying across it, but the thick growth of little trees 
is more frustrating. Only an inch or two in diameter, they grow in the trail itself, 
with brushy limbs that make it difficult to force ones way through.

Beyond Brokenfinger Creek, the trail goes into the national forest (1.2 mi/ 1.9 km), 
but the boundary line is not marked. The path descends to the river, where it 
disappears entirely. Formerly, it led to the Lower Jumpoff, then climbed the opposite 
bank to where the road now traverses (1.5 mi/2.4 km; 1200 ft/365 m).