My friend and guidebook author Craig Romano invited me along on this trip. Craig's book, Day Hiking the Olympic Peninsula is due for its second edition, and with that comes more research for Craig. In the first edition, Craig describes a 5 mile section of the West Fork Humptulips. On this expedition, we explored the whole trail. From the top of Humpnoochee Pass (giggle), all the way to the other end at the Gorge Bridge Trailhead.
In order to do the whole trail, we would have to back track a little. We began at the Upper West Fork Humptulips Trailhead and hiked up to Humpnoochee Pass from there. Humpnoochee Pass gets its funny name because it is the divide between the West Fork Humptulips and the Wynoochee drainages. The sign at the trailhead says 1-1/2 miles to the pass but I think it may have been a tad further than that, but not by much. Maybe 2-10ths of a mile or so. I do have the complete track on the map below, but it was recorded from my cell phone which is not highly accurate. The top of Humpnoochee pass is actually an abandoned forest Service road marked as NF 200 on Google Maps.
Not being able to see the tread very well since it was overgrown with tall grass, Craig stepped in a hole at the pass and twisted his ankle slightly which gave him a little trouble the rest of the weekend. Nothing serious enough to stop the hike however. The cool waters of the Humptulips which we would be fording several times would hopefully keep any swelling down.
The pass is really nice, considering it's an old road. It has some great views. You could access Elk Lake from up here as an off trail adventure if that's your thing. We took pictures, looked around a little and were soon headed back down to the trailhead where we started from. From the trailhead, the trail crosses the road and continues going downhill. The trailhead on the downhill side of the road was overgrown pretty bad, but once on the trail it was OK. Well, off and on it was OK. There were some spots that were really grown over, and actually throughout much of the day, we experienced spots of severely overgrown trail. Some places you could tell had been worked on in the last few years while others looked like they hadn't been touched since the trail was built. In a few spots, I wasn't sure how Craig could even see where we were supposed to go, it was so thick and choked with brush. I was glad he was leading the way.
Further down the trail, it crosses the Humptulips River several times. All in all we counted 27 crossings of the river that we had to ford each time - no bridges. This could be the ultimate hot weather hike. Very fun. The trail parallels the 2204 forest road and is never too far away but I swear I never heard a single vehicle all day except for when we passed through the Campbell Tree Grove campground. The trail also has junctions with the Petes Creek Trail and the Switchback Trail which I suppose a person could use if they wanted to do a shorter portion of the trail.
Driving Directions: From the Forest Service Website. "From Aberdeen, WA travel north on US Highway 101 for 25 miles to Forest Service Road 22/Donkey Creek Road. Turn right on Donkey creek Road and travel 8 miles to junction of Forest Service Road 2204. Turn left on Forest Service Road 2204 and travel 17 miles to Upper West Fork Humptulips Trailhead."Alternatively, if you know where the Petes Creek Trailhead is, continue past it on FS2204 for about 6 or 6 1/2 miles to the Upper West Fork Humptulips Trailhead. The road gets kind of rocky and a little rough but nothing a sedan can't drive up if caution is used. If you want to do a shorter section, try accessing the trail from the Petes Creek trailhead, the Switchback Trailhead or the Gorge Trailhead, all of which are along FS2204.
Click here to view other hikes I've done with Craig.
I love the Humpnoochee Pass but I have only done it in the rain so haven’t seen the views. I don’t think I’ve made the tpo of the pass though. I turned around wnen the road was half collapsed and completely blocked by reed canarygrass. 27 fords in 19 miles is incredible! How long did it take?
I couldn’t remember so I looked at the times on the GPS file. Well, we were certainly not in a big hurry. It looks like we started at 10:40 in the morning and finished at 7:45 that evening. Just a little over 9 hours. We got off to a late start but thankfully there is plenty of daylight that time of year.
Can’t wait to do this hike. I’ll be working with others on the Pete’s Creek trail this summer. Gorgeous place. And yes, pink marking flags will be the trail indicators (for now).Thank you for the great photos and trail report, Jay and Craig!
That’s awesome Theresa! Are you working on the upper portion of Pete’s up to Colonel Bob or just the part down to the river? The Hump certainly needs some attention in a few spots. There were a few down trees, but it needs brushing out more than anything else. Glad you enjoyed the report!
Hi Jay 🙂 Finally made the Humpnoochee yesterday. LOVE! So cool for a Harbor girl to see both the Humptulips and Wynoochee Valleys from such a spectacular vantage point. The Back Country Horsemen are working the trail from Upper Pete’s all the way to the Gorge Bridge PLUS adding a section in order to create a loop. Grant money has been gifted as well as permission. This plan has been in place for some time and it is finally happening. We began working last month and have some highly-skilled sawyers working with us. Very fun project!
Nice! Glad to see the Hump getting some attention. I hope that upper stretch from Campbell Tree Grove to the Pass gets looked at – or maybe it already has since last year? It was really brushy and hard to follow in a few places it was so overgrown. Super cool that a loop is being built. Thanks for sharing!
Orange tape is being used to mark the trails, not pink! 🙂
🙂