| Day Hikes Day hikes are a safe, easy way to gain the skills you will need to stay safe in the wild--all while learning about the natural and social history of the area. You will learn about the 10 Essentials, map and compass, trip planning, risk management, and staying found. Your Guide will lend you a kit with some of the Ten Essentials, and you will hike +/- 7 miles while learning about Olympic National Park. Trips do not leave every day, so Reserve Your Spot Today! |
Backpacking Backpacking sweeps the backpacker into the wild world of wilderness with all its grandeur and intensity. Backpackers can hike for almost as many days and almost as far as they want: for example, from Staircase in the southeast corner of the park to the Grand Valley in the northeast, from the Dosewallips in the east to Quinault in the west, or from Elwah in the north to Sol Duc in the west. Consider these routes for your ultimate wildnerness experience. Then Reserve Your Spot! |
| Leave No Trace (LNT) Trainings Leave No Trace is the national standard for outdoor recreation ethics from a conservation perspective. The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has established two main basic trainings in LNT: Awareness Workshops and Trainer Courses. Awareness Workshops last only a couple hours and offer little or no outdoor training. Trainer Courses are an intensive overnight experience with some backpacking. Reserve Your Spot for the course that's right for you. |
Scouting Guide and owner Jason Bausher is an Eagle Scout, Vigil Honor recipient, and is Wood Badge-trained. He can advise your troop about 50-miler hikes, the Leave No Trace Awareness Award, and merit badges such as Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, and Climbing. Jason can also serve as a liaison with the National Park Service to organize work parties or service projects in Olympic National Park. PLUS: Grays Harbor Boy Scouts receive FREE TRAININGS! Reserve Time for Your Program. |
| Service Tourism on the Olympic Peninsula will only last if we work to conserve the resource by doing trailwork, raising money for political action, and by teaching wildness to the generation to whom we hand over the earth. Sign Up Today to do or give what you can for the preservation of our children's earth. Where are your talents? Clearing trails? Educating National Park visitors about Leave No Trace ethics and practices? Raising money from friends, family, and business associates? Leading Boy or Girl Scouts? YOU CAN HELP!!! |
Mountain Seminars Do the mountains, rivers, and glaciers of Olympic National Park merely form one big playground, or is wilderness essential to our Being as embodied Beings in the world? Jason Bausher works on questions such as this in his environmental philosophy, and he shares his research in mountain seminars. He received his master's degree in theology from Yale University and is finishing an M.A. while in a doctoral program in philosophy. Check out a few of the seminars. Don't see your burning "big questions" being asked on this list? Email Olympic Mountain School for a custom program. |
The Queets River and Rainforest
Storms in the winter of 2004-2005 helped a small stream wash out a massive crater in the Queets River Road leading to the campground. This has intensified the wildness of the Queets and makes it one of the great attractions of Olympic National Park. Few people are visiting the area with the washout 7.5 miles from the river crossing, but the solitude gained from visiting is great. The Queets was a very popular place to put drift boats in to fish the river for steelhead and salmon. With the washout keeping many fishermen out of the Park and off the river, the opportunities for catching fish from this river have increased dramatically.
A spooky place indeed. The Queets is consistently described as one of the more "spooky" places to visit: trails appear from nowhere only to inexplicably vanish, animal skeletons are sometimes to be found, and footprints from animals and humans are often found in remote places without betraying the location of those who left them behind. The valley walls south of the Jeffers Glacier and north of Service Falls are some of the most heinous cliff faces to be found in Olympic National Park. If you are looking for unbounded wildness, this is the place for you.
Try these adventures:
- Day Hikes across the Queets River, up the river valley, and back again--all with bike-riding access on the washed-out road
- Backpacking up the Queets River with a visit to the mouldering Smith Place/Shaube Cabin
- Fly fishing for steelhead and cutthroat on the Queets and up Tshletshy Creek
