We drove out the parking area for Madison Creek Falls today to start our hike. We would walk 2 miles along the closed Elwha Road to the ranger station and the start of the Griff Creek Trail (5.6 miles round trip with 3,100 ft of elev gain). This can be a shorter hike: 3.6 miles rt with 1,500 ft elev gain to the 1st viewpoint or 4.6 miles rt with 2000 ft elev gain to the second viewpoint. There is also a boot track that goes beyond the "end of the trail" and I think some people may scramble up to the very top. We went a little bit beyond the end of the trail today. And when we returned to the car, did the short 250 ft walk to Madison Creek Falls. Overall we hiked about 11.25 miles today.
Above is the Elwha River from the parking area.
To the left is the closed road heading south to the Olympic Mountains and the Elwha Ranger Station.
View of the area where the road washed out. I hear they are hoping to have the road open by Memorial Day.
We had some nice views of the Elwha River along the road walk.
After 2 miles of road walking, we walked behind the Ranger Station to the trail head. This is a very nice forest walk that goes up onto one of the foothills in the Olympics.
View of Unicorn Peak.
Panorama view for the Rock Viewpoint. I think we are looking at Griff Peak, and Hurricane Hill and Hurricane Ridge in the far distance.
Same area another 500 ft up at the second viewpoint area. I believe Lake Mills could be seen from here, before the dams were removed.
We discovered there weren't any views at the "end of the trail", so
we followed a boot track a little further up the hill. I was not up for scrambling up the rocks to the left today, so we enjoyed our view in the shade during a lunch break.
Wide angle view from along the boot track. I believe we are looking at Griff Peak or Hurricane Hill
We saw a few deer bounding through the forest on our way down the trail, they were too fast to take a photo, but I was able to get a picture of these two back on the road.
Madison Creek Falls
Some of the flowers and plants we saw along the trail today:
We had some nice views of the Elwha River along the road walk.
Same area another 500 ft up at the second viewpoint area. I believe Lake Mills could be seen from here, before the dams were removed.
We saw a few deer bounding through the forest on our way down the trail, they were too fast to take a photo, but I was able to get a picture of these two back on the road.
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