Interim Access Route Proposed for Queets Valley

Date: December 21, 2006
Contact: Barb Maynes, 360-565-3005

An Environmental Assessment (EA) for Restoring Interim Access to the Queets Area was released today and is available for public review and comment. The EA analyzes one action alternative for restoring interim access into the Queets Valley, along with a no action alternative.

The Queets Road has been closed to traffic since March 2005, when a rock slide undercut the road bed, creating cracks in the road and rendering it unsafe for vehicles.  In January 2006, an even larger slide at the same site completely wiped out 150 feet of the road, leaving a 200-foot deep chasm and closing the area to pedestrian traffic as well.

“Thanks to excellent cooperation from our two neighboring agencies in the Queets, we are proposing to use DNR and U.S. Forest Service roads in order to establish an alternate route into the upper Queets area,” said Olympic National Park Superintendent Bill Laitner.  “Our goal is to re-establish access into the Queets rain forest, allowing people to once again enjoy the area.”

The roads considered for restoring access to the Queets are U.S. Forest Service Roads 21 and 2180, both of which are currently open to the public.  These roads would provide access to another U.S. Forest Service road and a DNR road, which would lead to a National Park Service road sometimes referred to as the “back door road.”  These roads have been used in the past for access by park staff, for emergency and administrative purposes, and when flooding or washouts have occurred along the first ten miles of the Queets Road. 

Comments should be sent to the following address no later than January 31, 2007.

Superintendent – Queets EA

Olympic National Park

600 East Park Avenue

Port Angeles, WA  98362

Fax: [phone]

Website: https://parkplanning.nps.gov

Email: e-mail us

Comments may also be submitted on-line by visiting the website for the National Park Service’s Planning Environment and Public Comment system. Initial public input on restoring access to the Queets was invited in July 2005.  Twenty-one comments were received.

For more information or to request a copy of the EA, people may call the park superintendent's office at [phone].

Commentors should be aware that their entire comment – including personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time.  While commentors can ask that their personal identifying information be withheld from public review, the NPS cannot guarantee that this will be possible.

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