We drove up to the Upper Big Quilcene Trailhead in the eastern Olympic National Forest to hike up to Marmot Pass and Buckhorn Mountain, 13 miles round trip with 4,500 ft of gain. The trail soon enters the Buckhorn wilderness and the first 3.5 miles are through the forest.
The first part of the trail follows along the Big Quilcene River, where there are many cascades.
We saw lots of fungi both on the ground and growing on trees.
The trail crossed over a few streams with small cascades.
Higher up the trail we passed through lichen covered trees.
The trail crossed a couple of avalanche slopes with views of nearby peaks.
We saw some fall color along the way.
Marmot pass near the center of the photo.
Looking up at Buckhorn Mountain and
Iron Mountain.
Above Camp Mystery is where the water of the Big Quilcene River comes up out of the ground.
View from Marmot Pass to the east and 
to the east.
Looking up at Buckhorn Mountain from Marmot Pass. Between Camp Mystery to Marmot Pass to the top of Buckhorn Mountain and all the way back to Camp Mystery, we only saw one other hiker on the trail. Very peaceful for a Friday.
Wide angle view to the west as we headed to the boot track up Buckhorn Mountain.
Looking down to Marmot Pass to the south as we head up Buckhorn Mountain.
There are two false summits on Buckhorn Mountain, some of our views along the way.
We were in and out of the clouds on Buckhorn Mountain.
Another view of Marmot Pass as we descended down Buckhorn Mountain.
Butterfly on the trail
Cloudy views as we hiked down from Marmot Pass.
Sun breaking through the clouds on the Big Quilcene as we continued down the trail.some of the wildflowers, berries and fungi we saw along the trail today:
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