Hike of the Week: Marmot Pass
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| View some of the Olympic's highest summits from Marmot Pass |
Marmot Pass
The Quintessential Olympic Mountain Hike
by Craig Romano
photo by Craig Romano
produced by Michael Fagin
Quick Facts
Location: East Slope, Hood Canal
Land Agency: National Forest Service
Roundtrip: 10.6 miles
Elevation gain: 3,500 feet
Contact: Hood Canal District, Quilcene (360) 765-2200; http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic
Green Trails Map: Tyler Peak, WA-No 136
Notes: Northwest Forest Pass required
Access: From Quilcene drive US 101 south for 1.5 miles. Turn right (west) onto Penny Creek Road. After 1.5 miles bear left onto Big Quilcene River Road (FR 27). Take this road for 9.25 miles turning left on FR 2750. Continue 4.75 miles to trailhead.
Marmot Pass captures the very essence of what makes the Olympics so special, and so darned pretty. En route to this 6,000-foot high gap in the Buckhorn Wilderness you’ll pass through towering old-growth forest. And you’ll traverse resplendent alpine meadows providing horizon-spanning views that include majestic snow-clad craggy spires, Puget Sound and the Seattle skyline shimmering in the late afternoon sun.
While the Upper Big Quilcene River Trail, your portal to Marmot Pass gains 3,500 feet in its 5.3 mile journey, the climb is quite agreeable on this well-built trail. Beginning, immediately enter the Buckhorn Wilderness and a magnificent primeval forest of hulking hemlocks, colossal cedars and firs hundreds of years old. Follow the Big Quilcene River for 2.5 miles before parting the whimsical waterway at Shelter Rock Camp.
Now leaving the valley floor, the way steepens. Forest yields to open avalanche chutes and scree slopes fanning down from Buckhorn and Iron Mountains. Rocky knobs sit on the steep ridge above like gargoyles on a medieval cathedral, while slender stalks of fireweed dance in gentle breezes whisking down from the pass. At 4.5 miles enter groves of yellow cedar and subalpine fir. Inviting Camp Mystery with its dual springs makes a good spot for refueling.
Now continue; breaking out into meadows pockmarked with marmot burrows. This is after all Marmot Pass, and perhaps one of the furry whistlers will greet you as you make one final push to this, one of the supreme viewing spots in the Olympics. Now enjoy, gazing east to Hood Canal, Puget Sound, and the Cascades. To the west the Dungeness Valley spreads out below, flanked by a wall of some of the highest summits in the Olympics.
Due to its rainshadow location, the high slopes here are dry and open, quite different from the rest of the Olympics-looking more like the east slopes of the Cascades. This environment allows lodgepole and whitebark pines to grow here. Clark’s nutcracker, a jay-like bird, roosts in the subalpine forests of Marmot Pass, feeding on pine nuts. Listen for their raucous call, a rare sound in the Olympics.
For information on lodging and other attractions near Marmot Pass visit
Click here for link to Olympic Pennsula
