Lake Quinault, Washington
2013.09.07
South from Ruby Beach, US-101 follows the coast for about ten miles, then turns inland and runs towards Lake Quinault. The lake itself is part of the Quinault Indian Reservation, while the south shore is mostly within the Olympic National Forest and part of the north shore is in Olympic National Park. The Quinault River drains the Quinault Valley to the Pacific.
We arrived at the lake for dinner at the Salmon House Restaurant at the Rain Forest Resort, probably the best of the few food options around. The restaurant overlooks an expansive lawn that gently slopes down to the southeast shore of the lake.
In early 2013, the Quinault Nation closed the lake to all non-tribal access, citing contamination from the septic systems of non-tribal private homes. A few months later they decided to re-allow swimming, but fishing and watercraft are still banned. This has hurt business for the various lodges, inns, and cabins around the lake, plus private homes (mostly on the north shore) with now useless boat docks. I suspect the tribe’s move has more to do with regional politics than environmental issues, but the net result for a tourist is that the lake appears serenely unoccupied, almost pristine.
World's Largest Sitka Spruce Tree
After dinner, we walked a short trail nearby to see the World’s Largest Sitka Spruce Tree. It long shared this claim with a tree at Klootchy Creek County Park near Seaside, Oregon, but a windstorm in 2006 took down much of the Oregon tree. The Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is the largest species of spruce and one of the largest conifers, so little wonder that such a giant has grown in a rainforest. Like many records though, this one requires the careful addition of qualifiers. The tallest Sitka Spruce (317 feet) is at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California. This tree is the stoutest, with a “diameter at breast height” of 18 feet 9 inches. The largest by volume (11,920 cubic feet) is the Queets Spruce, about 10 to 15 miles as the crow flies from Lake Quinault.
After visiting the tree, we walked back to the lake near the restaurant and resort to catch the sunset.
In our original plans, we had reserved a place to stay near the lake. When we rescheduled because of the weather, they were booked up for the weekend. So after the sunset, we had an hour’s drive down to Ocean Shores on the coast to our motel. It took at least an hour and a half because the highway along the north side of Grays Harbor was closed down for a wreck, so we had to make a wide detour on unfamiliar local roads in the dark.
Ruby Beach