8.2 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
We decided to hike this trail after finding out that the Elwha River trail didn't have easy access due to a road closure. It turns out the Elwha River is causing a lot of erosion after the dam was removed and the National Park Service was trying to stabilize things before the winter comes upon them! We could have hiked a road (believe it was the Whiskey Bend Road) for 5 miles to get to the TH, but we opted not to do a road walk. I believe the road was closed for a landslide (I forgot the details)?
The Sol Duc Falls parking area was packed with plenty of backpackers coming and going! The Sol Duc River is quite low but the Falls are still spectacular. The problem with this area is that there are way too many tourists and I couldn't get a picture of the falls without people climbing all over the rocks! Still, a very nice hike and probably much better during bad weather when most people stay away? I don't know how our elevation calculated to 2000ft of gain but this was per GPSFly.org?
