Park Newsletter May 9, 2008

The Queets River in January 2008.

 

Access to Upper Queets Restored!
Access into the upper Queets Valley reopened today via U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) roads.

The Queets Road closed to traffic in March 2005, when a rock slide undercut the road bed, 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.

An environmental assessment, completed in spring 2007, examined the effects of establishing an alternative route using existing USFS and DNR roads.

Over the past year, park crews have made a number of improvements to the alternative access route, including installing a bridge, installing signs, and clearing, grading and resurfacing the roads.

Although slowed by the past two winter's severe storm damage, these repairs are now complete and access is restored to the upper Queets Valley. The campground will re-open on May 16.

Map and more information about visiting the Queets Valley.

 

Linemen from the Clallam County PUD finalize the reestablishment of grid electricity to the Hoh Rain Forest area.

NPS Photo by Jon Preston

Electric Line Restored to Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Area
Diesel generators were finally silenced at the Hoh Rain Forest on May 2, after having supplied electricity to the area's visitor center, campground and employee housing for the past 18 months. Generators powered the Hoh's facilities ever since the record-breaking storm of November 2006 destroyed the buried power lines, and in that time, logged over 10,000 hours of operational time.

Over three miles of new buried electrical cable in conduit was installed, along with 17 utility vaults. Conclusion of this project culminated many months of cooperative work by staff from Olympic National Park, the Clallam County Public Utility District (PUD) and repair contractors.

 

Girl Scouts take a rest break before carrying their debris collection to the Second Beach trailhead.

Washington Coast Cleanup
Nearly 1,200 volunteer CoastSavers removed over 21 tons of marine debris from Washington's beaches during this year's inaugural Washington Coast Cleanup.

Although beach cleanups are a long-standing green tradition along Washington's Pacific beaches, this year's April 26 cleanup marked the first unified event along the entire coast.

On park beaches alone, over five tons of plastic, rope, tires and other debris were carried, hauled or dragged to trailhead dumpsters by 475 volunteers.

Olympic National Park is proud to be one of eight founding members of the Washington Clean Coast Alliance, which was founded earlier this year.

 

New WebPage for Hurricane Ridge Road Construction Updates

Weekly updates about construction progress on the Hurricane Ridge Road will be posted on Fridays on the park's website.

You may want to bookmark this page for weekly photos and status reports.