UPPER BIG QUILCENE TRAIL

Length 6.7 mi/10.8 km
Access FS Road 2750
USGS Maps Mount Townsend; Mount Deception
Agency Olympic National Forest

This route traverses the Buckhorn Wilderness. The trailhead (2500 ft/ 762 m) 
is located on FS Road 2750 just beyond Ten Mile Shelter (4.6 mi/7.4 km), near 
where the road crosses the Big Quilcene River. The shelter stands on a bench 
above the road, next to Wet Weather Creek; but, as the name implies, it was 10 
miles up the trail before the road was built.

The trail, which is well maintained by a number of volunteer groups, climbs 
gradually through stands of old-growth fir, cedar, and hemlock, primarily the 
latter. Rhododendrons are abundant and in early summer brighten the forest with 
masses of pink flowers. Many big, moss covered boulders lie scattered about, and 
ferns grow among the rocks. The trail comes out onto the banks of the Big Quilcene, 
then switchbacks upward through silver fir and western hemlock, leaving the river 
far below rushing wildly through the forest.

The trail then returns to the river and a side trail leads, left, to Shelter 
Rock Camp (2.6 mi/4.2 km; 3650 ft/1113 m), located in a stand of tall hemlock 
beside the Big Quilcene, which at this point is scarcely 10 feet wide. Why the 
camp received its name is puzzling. The only large boulders nearby are two 
modest-sized ones.

Beyond this camp the trail once again climbs up and away from the river, but 
parallels a small stream, the last source of water until one approaches Camp 
Mystery. As it traverses a steep, sun-baked mountainside, the path crosses a 
large boulder field where, during the winter and spring months, avalanches sweep 
down from Iron Mountain and Buckhorn Mountain. The river's canyon is to the left, 
and one can look up toward Marmot Pass. The trail then crosses scree slopes of 
another avalanche zone. Buckhorn Mountain stands to the north, the slope above 
the trail culminating in pinnacles of basalt. Across the narrow valley rise steep 
ridges and Peak 6852, with Mount Constance beyond.

Camp Mystery (4.6 mi/7.4 km; 5400 ft/1646 m) is located in a stand of sub-alpine 
fir beside a stream. A cragged ridge rises to the north, and rugged peaks are 
visible to the south. This is a good place to make a base camp because running 
water is available, and the place is sheltered from the wind.

The trail now climbs steadily toward Marmot Pass. The trees are much smaller 
and the stands thinner. The route goes through an area of large boulders interspersed 
with meadows and groves of subalpine fir, where a little stream tumbles down from 
the heights above. This is the last source of water. People who have cut across 
the switchbacks have done at this point considerable damage to the trail. The 
trail zigzags up the slope beneath outcrops of basalt, and one can look down the 
Big Quilcene Valley and see Puget Sound-and, beyond it, Glacier Peak topping the 
Cascades. The trail then breaks out into large meadows, through which it climbs 
to a junction with the Tubal Cain Trail at Marmot Pass (5.3 mi/ 8.5 km; 6000 ft/1829 m).

Upon reaching the pass, one is inclined to linger and savor the panorama that 
extends across the upper Dungeness. The view includes some of the highest peaks 
in the Olympics, including Fricaba, Deception, The Needles, and Graywolf Ridge. 
The pass is merely the low point in the Constance Range, the ridge that extends 
north from Mount Constance to the headwaters of Copper Creek. Here the wind seldom, 
if ever, stops blowing, howling fiercely as it whips across the notch, whistling in 
the subalpine firs that cling to the nearby ridge, while the grasses and wild-flowers 
wave wildly. Occasionally, however, the wind is toned down to a subdued susurration, 
and when this occurs the pass is a pleasant place to be. One cannot help but wonder, 
however, what it must be like here during a winter storm. . Double-peaked Buckhorn 
Mountain (6988 ft/2130 m; 6956 ft/2120m), which rises about a mile northeast of the 
pass, offers still better views of the northeastern Olympics. The ascent of the mountain, 
which owes its name to a fancied resemblance of the peak to deer antlers, is 
non-technical, via a prominent boot path visible from the pass. The much-used route 
is generally snow-free by mid-July. Hikers should stay on the boot-beaten path to 
avoid trampling the heather.

Beyond the pass the trail crosses a rock slide, then makes "the grand traverse"- 
alternately going through groves of subalpine fir and across meadowland brightened 
by bluebells, lupine, and yarrow in late summer, with splendid views of the Dungeness 
Valley and the rugged peaks. The trail then descends, crossing rockslides and meadows 
dotted with subalpine firs, and lodgepole and white bark pines. This is one of the 
few places where white bark pine grows in the Olympics, but about half the trees are 
dead. The trail then skirts a field of big, rough boulders at the foot of a talus 
slope, where water is available. This is the first stream since just beyond Camp Mystery.

The trail enters a dense stand of subalpine fir as it drops down to a junction with 
the Constance Pass Trail and the Upper Dungeness Trail near Boulder Shelter (6.7 mi/
10.8 kin; 4950 ft/1509 m).