I recently backpacked in Graves Creek Olympic National Park. I have been wanting to backpack for a long time but hadn’t wanted to buy gear, was too scared, too busy, or didn’t. After getting a gift card to REI I had one less excuse and a couple friends had express interest as well. The critical mass sunk the ship and I went out to buy a backpack. We chose Grave Creek because I had been there once before with my dad for an out and back hike. On that hike I noticed a campground at the trailhead and the map there showed backpacking sites along the trail. It seemed prefect for getting out there, which is a aobut 3 hours from Seatle (on average, traffic can make a big difference), late on a Friday car camping and setting out for the hike the next morning and camp deeper in the woods.
We followed this general plan. We left as soon as we could after work, which ended up being later than we’d hoped. No having dinner plans we stopped at a Chipotle in a shopping center since we wanted to get some extra snacks for the hikes. This pushed us back to getting to the Graves Creek campground at 11:30pm. It started raining on the way and was certain long past getting dark by the time we arrived. After you get to Quinault you still have about an hour left, mostly on a dirt road with potholes to avoid. About 1.5 miles of the dirt road left there was downed tree crossing our path blocking the car from going any further. Being so late, we back tacked a little to find a spot on the road to camp for the night. We had seen another car do the same even further back but didn’t know at the time it was likely because of the same tree.
The next morning we needed to pick up the backpacking permit at the ranger’s station back in Quinault. The ranger there gave us a hint to use other sites between Pony Bridge and O’Neil Creek where we are permitted to stay. Apparently 50 people had reserved to stay at O’Neil Creek. A site that is only meant to accomodate 6 tents. He suggested Fire Creek, which off shoots slightly from the main Graves Creek trail, and I’m so glad he did. The beautiful hike through the lush Quinault rainforest was only about 4 miles to the site we chose along Fire Creek that feeds into Graves Creek.