WYNOOCHEE TRAIL Abandoned trail, limited maintenance Length 3.7 mi/6.0 km Access FS Road 2270 USGS Map Mount Hoquiam Agencies Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park Today the Wynoochee Trail is just a fragment of what it was forty years ago. At that time it extended almost the full length of the river where the stream flowed through federal land-more than 15 miles in the national forest, a couple more in the national park. The latter part of the trail still exists, but in the national forest logging, road building, and the impoundment of water behind Wynoochee Dam have obliterated the trail. The area is botanically interesting because big trees occur at comparatively high altitude; included among them are some of the largest western hemlocks found in the national park. The trailhead (2500 ft/762 m) is not marked, but the path begins where FS Road 2270-400 makes a U-turn (1.7 mi/2.7 km beyond its junction with FS Road 2270) below a clear-cut that is now mostly covered with blackened stumps. The trail goes through old-growth forest, which contrasts sharply with the roads and logged areas that the hiker leaves behind when setting foot upon this route. After crossing into the national park (0.2 mi/0.3 km; 2700 ft/823 m), the trail-often little more than roots and rocks-climbs steadily at a moderate grade. The terrain drops steeply to the Wynoochee River, here in a deep canyon. The trees are large western hemlock and silver fir; the dense undergrowth is chiefly huckleberry. The blossoms of bunchberry dogwood form beautiful carpets beneath the trees in early summer. Between the park boundary and Wynoochee Pass the trail crosses a half dozen creeks and several brooks. Because the slope is steep, cascades and waterfalls characterize the streams. The trail crosses the Wynoochee (here a small stream) just below the confluence of a creek (1.6 mi/2.6 km), each stream having a waterfall. The one in the river is a double cascade. The trail steepens as it approaches Wynoochee Pass, and the trees change to mountain hemlock and Alaska cedar. The path climbs a high-angled slope, crosses an avalanche track overgrown with scrubby Alaska cedar, and then switches back to the north. Here, from a couple of windows in the hemlock forest, one can view the Wynoochee Bowl at the river's headwaters. Near the pass a cluster of huge, multi-trunked Alaska cedars-old derelicts more dead than alive-stand on the steep side hill above the trail. At Wynoochee Pass (2.2 mi/3.5 km; 3600 ft/1097 m) tall mountain hemlocks mark the low point in the north-south ridge that rises between the Wynoochee River and Graves Creek. The terrain just beyond the pass is more or less level, a mixture of subalpine forest, outcrops of sandstone, and heather meadows, where beargrass and huckleberry are abundant and the white lupine may be found. The meadowland is not extensive. The trail goes by two ponds, and then descends the eastern slope through stately forests of silver fir and western hemlock having the usual undergrowth of huckleberry. Here a faint path (2.5 mi/4.0 km; 3400 ft/1036 m), marked by pink ribbon, leads right, downhill, but is easily overlooked. This is the Sundown Lake Way Trail. Although the slope on this side of the divide is not as steep, the trail descends sharply via switchbacks and a traverse to a rocky creek bed, which is usually dry in late summer or early fall. This is the headwater of Graves Creek, and just beyond the boulder-filled channel, the route intersects the Graves Creek Trail (3.7 mi/6.0 km; 2700 ft/823 m).