Kaleberg Symbionts Archives

11/17/14 - The Trail To Olympic Hot Springs Is Open Again

The trail to Olympic Hot Springs is open again after three long years. We had never taken the old trail, so this was a double first for us. Apparently, the road used to end quite close to the hot springs. Now, it's a 2.4 mile walk along a trail which was obviously the old roadbed. It was easy to tell. The trail is as wide as a road, and there were several bridges we crossed that were clearly designed for automobiles, not hikers. It was an easy 300 odd foot ascent from the trailhead to the hot springs, but here and there they cut drainage ditches right across the old roadbed. Some of them were a bit deep, and there was some ice on the trail, so we had to watch our step.

After a ways we came to a rather pretty suspension bridge. This was a sturdy, well designed bridge with iron posts, handy handrails and a comfortably wide walkway. This was obviously new. It wasn't designed for cars. A bit further on we came to a wide area that was obviously the old parking lot. We made our way downhill and across another small bridge. We were tired and almost turned around here, but after some deliberation pressed on. The hot springs were not far. First we saw the steam. Then we saw the wet areas where the hot springs drained across the trail before running down to the creek below.

Exploring more, we found the catchments, collections of log and stone that held back the steaming sulfurous waters and formed inviting looking pools. We stopped to explore several of them, but we were too tired to soak. There was plenty of steam, and the whole area seemed warmer. There was some frost on the trail, but not where the hot springs ran.

There were a fair number of hikers out on the trail, especially considering that it was a weekday in the shoulder season. A lot of them had been to the springs back when they were a short stroll from the parking lot, but that was before our time. Round trip from the new parking lot to the hot springs was about two and a quarter hours. That included the time we spent exploring the hot springs.