Olympic NP Vacation Day 3: To the Bridge and a Rusty Truck

Today we got up around 6:00AM and had breakfast at the lodge. We split the logger breakfast which includes three eggs, two strips of bacon, potato cubes, and a biscuit with jelly. It is a good size for us to split and not be hungry afterwards. After we finished breakfast, we got in the car to drive up South Shore Road to the Pony Bridge and Enchanted Valley trail head. On the way out we stopped to see the Big Sitka Tree, which is large in diameter while also very tall. After viewing the Sitka Tree, we continued along South Shore Road stopping at Merriman Falls and then at Bunch Falls. It should be noted that 10 miles of the drive was on a very curvy single lane gravel road, which the Chrysler 300 handled reasonably well.

The hike to Pony Bridge is considered a moderate 2.5-mile hike (one-way) with an elevation change of about 700ft. We decided we were not going to do the full 13-miles (one-way) out to Enchanted Valley. I will categorize the hike out to Pony Bridge uphill both ways. The first part of the hike is a moderate uphill climb till you reach the plateau point and involves crossing a log bridge. Then you start the steeper downhill portion, which is partially walking in a dry rocky streambed, that eventually turned into a wet rocky streambed for portion of the trail. That section is not good for people with poor balance. We started the hike at 10AM and arrived at the bridge at about noon, with stops for pictures. The bridge is nothing exciting, it crosses a glacial river and has a small little water fall along the side of the river. Since we reached the bridge about noon, we had lunch at the bridge. Lunch was a beef ravioli MRE which also included apple sauce and instant chocolate pudding. Jim and I split the MRE because it really is more calories than either one of us needs in a single sitting. After lunch we started the trek back to the car. Once we got back to the car, we headed back along South Shore Road to the bridge that would take us over to North Shore Road.

North Shore Road is also very curvy single lane gravel road, which resulted in us having to back up at

one point to get to a pull out so we could let another car pass. We took this road down to the Quinault River Ranger Station where we walked the Kestner Homestead Trail which is an easy flat 1.3-mile loop. The trail takes you past a small homestead the park is restoring to turn into a living history section. We saw a rusty tractor and rusty old Chevrolet delivery truck. After the hike we head back to the lodge, with a quick stop at Dino’s Restaurant to pick up dinner to go.

So today we hiked a total of 6.3 miles today and had a full day outside. Tomorrow I think we will head up to Hurricane Ridge which is 3 hours away so there will be some long-distance driving involved.

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