Trip Date: April 28th, 2021
Decided to take a day trip up the Wynoochee valley to explore the Wynochee lake area with Danny and Emma. Neither one of us had been to this particular area of the Olympic National Forest before, and this visit left us wanting to come back for more. The Wynoochee Valley road starts near the town of Montesano, WA and extends about 30 miles North up the valley, heading towards the Olympic Mountains. At the Wynoochee lake, just below the dam, the road splits into two main forest service roads extending up both the east and west sides of the lake. We drove both of these road branches today to see what we could find. Our terminus on the roads today was at locked gates where we had to turn around. The roads were closed for the winter season to protect the wildlife in the upper areas of the valley. This just left us wanting for more; we will have to visit again later in the season when the gates are open.
The mountains surrounding the Wynoochee Lake area are quite steep and rugged, giving a glimpse of the terrain deeper into the mountains. On our visit today there was still lots of snow on the mountain peaks, but things were starting to melt out, even at the top of the highest peaks. The Olympic National Park lies a few miles north of the lake, where some truly remote and unspoiled mountains are protected for all of us to enjoy.
Interspersed throughout the forest around the lake are some absolutely enormous old growth Red Cedar and Douglas Fir trees. These are some of the largest trees we have been able to walk amongst on our adventures in the Pacific North West. Standing next to these giants gives one a good idea of what the original forests looked like in the area, before the major logging operations in the early 1900s took their toll. Being that we were on the Olympic Peninsula there was plenty of moss and ferns around to fill in the gaps between the trees, making for a lush forest floor with towering giants above.
Watch our Gravel Bound Channel video of the Wynoochee Lake area on YouTube in the player below. Some photos of our trip today are seen at the bottom of the page.
