Elwha River drains the central and interior Olympic Mountains, flowing to the north and emptying into the central Strait of Juan de Fuca. It’s a principle watershed on the Olympic Peninsula, of far northwestern Washington State. The upstream portion of Elwha is entirely contained within Olympic National Park; it is an important developed tourist destination for the Park, and is a rewarding & diverse riverine recreation area for locals & visitors alike.
In the second decade of the 21st century, a historic hydroelectric dam removal and reservoir drainage project has given Elwha river unusual media coverage … and has involved some sweeping access restrictions, although the popular tourist circuit was only occasionally impaired. At the end of 2014, restricted areas had been reduced to small locales immediately around ongoing construction or issues.
In particular the bed of the former Lake Mills, which is the one that was within the Park, has now been declared open. This exposure will be of great interest while it is still raw & open, but that will last for just a very few years. In the summer of 2016 it will remain relatively open, but in 2017 & 2018 it will become covered in what most will consider an impenetrable thicket of seedling & sapling pioneer trees.
The exposed lakebed can pose hazards. Several kinds of slope instability can be present (there are large deposits of formerly submarine sediment, at times perched on the hillside), and various unusual mud-conditions are likely. While it is still a stark, gray scar in the mountain valley, the lakebed is ‘obviously’ something to take care with. But conditions will continue to evolve rapidly and present unfamiliar opportunities for trouble, after the area becomes completely covered in dense greenery. It may be that it will be after the site has seemingly grown-over and can present the appearance of being healed, that folks will be more likely to blunder into situations they would rather have avoided.
As of the beginning of 2015, the river is closed to boating along the stretches above and below the lakebed within the Park, as well as through the drained lake site itself. The valley-stretch itself is still changing and eroding too rapidly for casual recreational boating. The easiest and most direct opportunity to put-in to boat the new valley (once it opens again), is via Upper Lake Mills Trail (which is now open). This is a 0.4 mile footpath downhill to the upper end of the valley that became the lake. By using two vehicles, a boating-party can leave one at the lower take-out point, then go up-river to put-in (driving the 1st vehicle back up to retrieve the 2nd).
The easy take-out will then be immediately above the former site of the Glines Canyon Dam, which as of early 2015 is itself a remaining small locale that is closed. (Tasks and goals within this closure may have to wait for dryer conditions in early summer of 2015, and completion of these may or may not happen later in that season.) This will be a very popular canoe or kayak outing, both during the early regrowth stage, and after the valley starts to seem forested again. The new valley is only a mile or so long, but will be full of interesting features, and will especially repay repeated float-trips as the surroundings change rapidly from year-to-year.
Severe whitewater canyons bracket the river both above & below the new valley. Rica Canyon above, the head of which is an easy hike-in, and Glines Canyon below, which has road-access at both ends. Both canyons are short but dire hardrock gorges, suitable only for advanced & experienced boaters, and even then only after careful investigation of current conditions (which are often completely untenable).
Throughout and on the periphery of the developed Elwha venue are trails and trailheads, both for casual day-hiking and rich photography, and for open-ended access into the hinterlands & backcountry. There are two formal automobile, travel-trailer and motorhome campgrounds along the main valley.
The lower of the two drained lakes, Lake Aldwell, lies outside Park, although there may have been some corridor land-transfers or acquisition and possible special status granted for the former Lake Aldwell site itself. The dam site is at a canyon-constriction which was historically difficult to access, and without the dam to bridge the chasm will probably not provide any access to the regenerating lake bed. Historically, access to the lake was via a boat launch on State land at the far upper end, which is at the end of a short road off of US Highway 101 immediately west of its bridge over Elwha river (the left bank).