Olympic National Park Enchanted Valley is one of the best hiking trails in the area. As you may have known, Olympic Peninsula, Washington, offers epic hikes as a part of its adventurous wilderness. It’s a popular attraction and it’s not hard to see why, with its lush historic forests, bustling snowmelt rivers, and snow-covered mountains peaks.
Assuming that you’ve already known the basic details of the site, here is some information that you may need to prepare for hiking here.
Trail length
The total of Enchanted Valley trail length is 13.5 miles, measured as the distance between the trailhead and the site’s camp area. The amount of time it takes will depends largely on hiking speed and the planned days to go on the trail. Note that this doesn’t include the side trails, campsites visits, or chalet’s hiking.
Hike difficulty
The difficulty of Olympic National Park Enchanted Valley trail is not extreme and not technical in any way, regardless of age. The real challenge lies in the length of the trail so it’s important to go easy with your planned completing time.
In general, the Olympic National Park Enchanted Valley hike trail has good combination of mild inclines, slight downhill, flat path, and stable uphill. The most extreme incline is situated after Pony Bridge Camp on the route back to trailhead, which means you’re close to the end of the trail.
The surroundings
Most of the Enchanted Valley trail follows the path of the Quinault River that sandwiched between the flourishing mature forests that are common in the Olympic Peninsula. The whole trail is undoubtedly alluring. However, the primary appeal of the hike is placed at the end of the valley where there’s a opened up spaces between the trees, allowing hikers to enjoy the view of the river and snow-covered mountain peaks.
If you are interested in hiking there, you can make a reservation by visiting www.recreation.gov and opening Olympic National Park Wilderness Permits page. It’s possible to make a reservation up to six months in advance. Alternatively, for those who encounter trouble when trying to book a trip online can contact for assistance from Wilderness Information Center by dialing (360) 565-3100.
In the case of zero availability for your reserved dates, you may look around for other campgrounds around such as Pyrites Creeks, O’Neil Creek and Pony Bridge. They follow the same trail so you can hike to the Olympic National Park Enchanted Valley without a difficulty and spend some times there even though you won’t be able to stay overnight.