Olympic Mountains Trail Guide. Robert Wood

Fork Sol Duc. The river is not visible, hidden in the dense forest, but the beautiful scene down the valley includes truncated spurs that appear to alternately overlap each other, like shingles, as they extend toward the stream from the bordering ridges, thus creating through the forest a zigzag line that marks the river’s course. The valley is heavily timbered, and the view of virgin forest, unmarred by fire, logging, or road building, is one of the finest in the national park, comparable on a lesser scale to what a more famous vista was like before it was impaired by logging—the view from Kloochman Rock, overlooking the Queets Valley (see Kloochman Rock Trail).

      This stretch of trail is particularly delightful during Indian summer in late September and October. The ice on Mount Olympus glitters in the soft, pale sunlight, the wind whispers in the clumps of subalpine firs on the ridge, and the tall meadow grasses undulate restlessly with every vagrant breeze.

      Beyond the last meadow, the trail traverses dense forests of silver fir to a junction with the Aurora Divide Trail (15.1 mi/24.3 km; 4750 ft/1448 m).