Upper Queets Traverse The knowledgeable, woods wise hiker can travel cross- country from the end of the Queets Trail to Queets Basin. The points of interest along the way include Hee Hee Creek, Hee Haw Creek, Kilkelly Rapids, and Service Falls. Above Alta Creek, which George Shaube named for his wife, the steep mountainsides come down close to the Queets, and at Paull Creek (8.0 mi/12.9 km; 1400 ft/427 m) the river emerges from the Queets Canyon. The route avoids the canyon because cliffs rise directly from the river's banks. At this point it leaves the Queets and climbs steep slopes of Mount Olympus to the head of the Jeffers Glacier (10.0 mi/16.1 km; 5850 ft/1783 m), the site of the O'Neil party's high camp in 1890. One then descends the glacier and traverses steep terrain to the west side of Queets Basin (13.0 mi/20.9 km). However, this route is easier to travel going in the opposite direction—from Queets Basin to Olympus, then down the river. In fact, the normal approaches leading to the basin avoid the Queets Valley: one can climb over the glaciers of Mount Olympus from the Hoh; hike the Elwha Trail or the North Fork Quinault and cross Dodwell-Rixon Pass; or traverse the Bailey Range southward from Mount Carrie or Ludden Peak. Queets Basin has several levels, ranging in elevation from 3300 to 5500 ft (1006 to 1676 m), and it is cleaved through the middle by a rollicking stream that flows through Pluto's Gulch. The rolling heather meadows are broken by rocky points and outcrops and by clusters and lines of mountain hemlocks. Little brooks cascade down from the big snowfields on the upper terraces, and the booming of the Queets River in its timbered canyon contrasts with the twittering of birds, the buzzing of bees, and the soughing of mountain winds. Wildflowers clothe the hillsides— beargrass, daisies, paintbrush, avalanche lilies, alpine yellow monkey flowers, and, mountain buckwheat. Jeffrey shooting stars sparkle in patches of marshland or by the edges of little streams. The grasses often grow knee deep, where gentians, lupine, and buttercups nod in the cool breezes, and elephant heads and strawflowers add touches of purple and pink. Along the bordering ridges, the sprawling mountain hemlocks struggle for existence, and juniper spreads dense mats along the ground. Bears are likely to be observed in the meadows of Queets Basin, and elk herds can be spotted on the snowfields as they cross to or from Elwha Basin. The men Lieutenant O'Neil sent to Mount Olympus in 1890 were probably the first persons to visit Queets Basin, which they called the Garden of the Gods, but others, including the Dodwell-Rixon survey team about a decade later, quickly followed them. Since then many people have stayed in the basin because it makes a good base camp for climbing the nearby peaks. The best campsite is a level, grassy area in the lower part, located between a meandering brook and Pluto's Gulch. Although the wind that sweeps down the gulch from the snowfields above is cold at night, it is a delightful zephyr by day. Higher up, a spectacular camp is located near Dodwell-Rixon Pass beside a little lake that overlooks the country. Here glacier-polished slabs of sandstone rise from a flat meadow to impound a brook, thus forming the tarn. On either side of the outlet, mountain hemlocks on rocky knolls frame a view of Mount Olympus and the Humes Glacier. Marsh marigolds and shooting stars line the lake's edge in August, blooming alongside remnant snowfields. Down the Queets Canyon toward the Pacific the timbered ridges fade away, their detail lost in purple shadows or obscured by the fog that often drifts up the valley, enclosing the basin in gray mist.