Bailey Range Traverse is an unofficial, informal hiking-route over about 15 miles of the interior, core Bailey Range ridge-massif of the Olympic Mountains, within the Olympic National Park. Much of it has an easily-followed path, but there are sections that become unclear and uncertain, and thus can be especially memorable. Perennial – and varying – snow patches, fields and glacier-remnants exist in the south, upper, far-interior section. Hazards are generally mild, but it is rough terrain, and isolated. Weather is a large factor, especially on longer outings. Actual travel distance is at least half again the air-miles, and some parts can be slow or ‘tedious’. The full tour including approach & exit usually takes a week; hot-doggers post quicker transits, and the luckier folks take longer. The core portion alone is a good 3-day project.
The modern form of the basic Bailey-hike is the always-desirable loop. It uses two trailheads, one on each side of the Elwha River. The Boulder Creek Trailhead is normally the start, on the flanks of the Bailey Range itself. Hikers then travel up-country through the range, to the headwaters of the Elwha. At the far end of the river, they pick up the official Elwha River Trail, on the far side of the river from the Baileys, and follow it about 27 miles back downstream to its beginning at Whiskey Bend Trailhead.
The proximity of the Boulder Creek and Whiskey Bend trailheads to each other, both within the Park, both in the Elwha valley and less than half an hour apart on rustic and primitive roads, makes the logistics of using separate entry & exit locations much less stressful & noxious than is common with other ‘hike-through’ or ‘shuttle-loop’ solutions. Whiskey Bend is also the entry-point for the nearby popular but low-key Humes Ranch day-hike and casual camp-out area. Folks engaged in these light outdoor activities (Humes Ranch and its associated Geyser Valley locale are quite popular with serious photographers) often take an interest in backcountry hikers emerging from the hinterland (‘mobbed’ is an overstatement, but descriptive), and getting a ride across the valley to Boulder Creek works out fairly reliably.
The basic Bailey-loop begins at the Boulder Creek parking area, and follows good trail to Appleton Pass, 7.5 miles with 3,200′ gain. From Appleton, most folks use the Cat Creek Way Trail, a 2 mile off-trail route itself. The Way Trail puts them at the end of the maintained High Divide Trail, which is in a camping-restricted area. They continue out the unmaintained portion of High Divide to its deadend, which used to be the start of the Bailey Traverse. Today, it is necessary to follow the off-trail route over Cat Peak and across the Cat Walk arete, then ascend the northwest ridge of Mount Carrie several hundred feet to its nice south-shoulder, before one has left the restricted-camping zone.
Once on Carrie’s shoulder overlooking the Hoh River, the contemporary off-trail Traverse has begun. Go easy with the camping on Carrie, since Bailey hikers are these days making a long push to get this far, want to stop ‘right here’ when they finally leave the special-Permit zone, and we are thus ironically at risk of creating the same camping-scars that led to the restrictions, down-country. We don’t want to see these restriction extended … should do what we can to show they aren’t necessary elsewhere, and hopefully can be someday lifted, where they are now in force.
Carrie has good stretches of optimum hiking-conditions, and awesome views of Mount Olympus. There is a general shelf or bench, running along the side of the mountain, and the route takes advantage of it. There is a spot called Eleven Bull Basin, which is often the camp-objective that parties are aiming for. Try to avoid Eleven Bull, or any other locale that you can see is attracting concentrated usage. Pick camp sites that are off the path, across hard ground, and don’t ‘improve’ or smooth them, which authorities see as damage and cite as evidence of over-use; restrictions are then justified, and ultimately we could see closures.
Mostly, the Carrie-stretch is ideal hiking, but it arrives at points where the route needs to descend steep-spots. The path becomes chute-like. On the over-steep path, folks are skidding or even purposefully sliding, either on their feet or likely sometimes sitting down. Again, these useage-features are counted as “damage”, and it is in our interest to identify our liabilities, and take steps to minimize them. Make a game of going down steep ground without breaking traction; place the feet carefully on ‘hard-points’, balance carefully and change position under full control. A good way to think about it is, ‘You certainly can’t slide up-hill, so you don’t have to slide down-hill, either’.
The route now transitions from Mt Carrie to Stephen Peak, but indistinctly. Some think the right solution on Stephen is to hold high, which commonly results in a time-consuming ‘adventure’, as they pick a route down off terrain with lots of uncrossable roughness. The views can be rewarding, though, and ultimately Stephen has ‘another side’ which is very intriguing. Going down-and-around is more normal … but animals like deer, elk and bear are doing the same thing, transitioning from various feeding-areas and movement-routes, to others (and steering clear of the high rocky terrain). Folks have repeatedly wandered the various options, but the topography is gentle enough, and game-trails obvious & active enough, that no social or regulatory issues stand out, as they do on Carrie.
It is easy to get drawn further downhill than ‘necessary’, going around Stephen Peak, but eventually one decides they’ve gone far enough (big timber..), and begins following one of the natural routes, up-slope. They all converge on the same destination. Cream Lake Basin is the charming area south of Stephen, and north of Mount Ferry. In the same way that one generally does not get lost going up the mountain, but rather ends up somewhere inconvenient, when going back downhill … beware that the conventional north-south Bailey passage works in one’s favor, rounding Stephen low from the north, and climbing back uphill into the Cream Lake area … and conversely may not work quite so intuitively, if travelling instead from south to north.
From the upper Cream Lake Basin (Cream itself appears to be the lower lake), the route transitions to Mt Ferry. In the transition and subsequent passage between Ferry and Mount Pulitzer (aka the apt descriptive, ‘Snag Tooth’), the route moves behind elevated terrain between itself and the open expanse of Hoh River valley. This is the first time this has happened since getting on the High Divide, back at the top of Seven Lakes Basin. It’s temporary; Snag Tooth in particular – which is visually dramatic & conspicuous – stands between the traveler and the Hoh.
There is a large lake hard against the base of Snag Tooth, and the route is above the opposite shore, on the shoulder of Ferry. From Cream Basin, the lower end of the lake can be approached over a rocky hill, or via a path along the edge of a nasty erosion-gully. The gully-path is more obvious, because it is on friable fine erosion-materials … but squeezes a little too tightly along the drop into the gully. Therefore, one should walk up on the rock rise until the lake comes into view, then quarter toward Ferry on the left, skirting the head of the gully as it comes into view. There are camps on the Cream side of this elevated, open ground above the Basin area, and toward the Hoh side of it; these appear to be good options to camping in the Basin below, although usage doesn’t look bad there.
Once at the lower end of the Ferry-Pulitzer lake, around the head of the gully and on the (west) shoulder of Ferry, it is easy route-finding across a recently deglaciated ‘moonscape’ above the (new) lake, on your right. At the upper end of the lake, one is at the southwest ‘corner’ of flat-topped Ferry. The Ludden-Scott Saddle route is across the south side of Ferry, to its southeast corner. There is a small blocky-knobby cliff (10-15′) that drops onto the top end of an inclined fine-talus quasi-arete, with a clear path descending its crest-line. The cliff is easier going up, especially the first time, and some folks rig some protection, rope packs down, etc. This is one of the very few spots where prudent outdoors folks will ‘hesitate’; part of the reaction being the fairly vast ‘air’ out over the barren, steep, fine-grained talus slopes below … rather than the cliff and its fall-hazard per se.
Most folks are soon free-climbing the Ferry-corner terrain-break. It is the key to a mid-Baileys ‘escape’ route, back to the regulation trail system at Dodger Point. It is convenient to learn this route as a separate weekend outing, by first hiking in on the trails to Dodger, and then route-finding or following a guide over Ludden-Scott. Then, if one wants to do a half-Bailey trip, or use the Saddle as a weather-escape, the details & route-particulars are already known, without it being a ‘forced’ self-education exercise (maybe under some pre-existing degree of duress (adverse weather, exhaustion, group problems)).
Ferry, Snag Tooth and the lake end abruptly, giving way on the south to an open, wide & long, near-level saddle. In the rough ground between the southern edges of the two mountains, there are several nice ‘coves’ for camps. The open saddle also has good gravel sites for tents, which won’t show much impact. Don’t modify the ground or rocks in the saddle; it’s a place that focuses attention. There are sites out on the slope of Snag, on the north end of the saddle and on the open Hoh-side of the pitch.
Across the open-stroll saddle a few hundred yards south, the alpine portion of the Traverse begins again, rather abruptly. (This is Lone Tree Pass?) It is obvious from the saddle (in clear weather) what lies ahead … and this is partly why the Ludden-Scott escape bears pointed mention. A walk-up rock pitch juts from the ground at the south end of the saddle, and on its top conditions are long-term ‘moonscape’ habitat. Like the shoulder of Mt Ferry above the lake, except it’s been this way for much longer. It’s very comfortable walking-terrain, hard and rocky, very open, and the Bailey Range has become much narrower. Visibility is good, to both sides. The angle of the view of Mt Olympus is changing, and it’s getting closer.
Beginning at the Saddle, there is a parade of dramatic cliffs falling away to the east (left) into the Goldie River watershed. These cliffs fall off from quite near the crest of the Range, which then slopes mostly gently for a little ways at least, to the west, to the Hoh-side, on your right. These cliffs go a long way to bound & guide the route-finding. Often, they are visible in views ahead, to the south. There are interruptions or exceptions to the pattern of an alpine walk along a broad crest; a peak soon rises above the cliffs, informally called Ragamuffin and Urchin, and it tends to harbor a snowfield on its Hoh River side.
Ragamuffin is the first of several snow-tests. Of first importance, snow-conditions absolutely vary widely on the southern, alpine section of the Baileys. It varies through the summer, melting constantly, and it can & does vary wildly, from year to year. Thus, exact descriptions of the snow that might be encountered at each point along this section of the hike, and how it should be handled, aren’t possible. Generally, though, all of these snow-patches are remnants of formerly much-larger permanent snow-fields, and generally they are small and shrunken-down to the denser perennial material, late in the season. Usually. If an early-season outing is attempted, the patches will probably be much larger, with last winter’s new snow covering them.
The ice axe is expected gear, although it is plain that plenty of folks carry it, to forestall being asked why they don’t have it. No doubt about it, an ice axe is a awfully fierce tool to be flailing around with, while accelerating down a steep, glazed ice-surface. Folks who have such a tool, but not the real training & practice to deploy it safely in a snow-field emergency, should stop their forward progress before getting out onto steep, semi-ice-like fields. Pretend to have lunch. Take photos from different vantages & angles. Then pack up the gear, put the guards back on the axe, and head back the way you came. And that’s how real mountain-hikers who really know how to use an axe do it, too – perhaps more often than not.
Folks sometimes spend quite a long time next to a snow-feature, even retreat to a comfortable camp that was not on the itinerary. If the heart is pounding, the legs quivering, it’s only your better instincts ensuring that you have a long hiking-career. That other parties may be cruising back & forth across the object of one’s discomfiture, may be sign the – ‘See?’ – it’s not that bad. Or, they may be daredevils who don’t want to seen balking at a hazard. Late in the season, there are often visible paths on the hard snow, showing where others thought was the right way.
After Ragamuffin (and Urchin) is another walk on the crest, and then Mount Childs. Childs is on the Hoh-side, and the crest-route lies well to its left, going south. None of these ‘peaks’ stick up very far at all, above the crest; they are just small obstacles along the otherwise inviting crest-walk; they only need attention so that one ‘stays on the right (correct) side of them’. It’s rather obvious where the route lies, since the crest is not an extensive piece of countryside. Even in clouds, fog and rain, the right thing to do is just stay on the top.
The crest broadens, after squeezing past Ragamuffin & Urchin, which might require crossing snow, on the Hoh side. Or, there may be a gap opening up, between the top of the snow-patch and the base of the cliffs above. The patch may have a hump that makes a flat & inviting path to cross. If it’s steep and icy and scary, it is what is. Real mountain-hikers go home in one piece, not infrequently just reversing the path by which they came to their limits, when that’s ‘what it is’. But especially later in the season, parties are often cruising back & forth (both directions) along this crest. It’s not terra incognita.
Going past Childs, on the right, off a little ways (going south), the crest now widens-out considerably. These days, 21st C, snow-patches are usually getting quite puny, and in this stretch they are not perched out on major slopes: it’s basically ‘flat’ through here. Ahead about a mile, gentle descending, is the big perennial snow-field called Bear Pass. The snow may be pulling back from the very crest, making it a firm-ground walk, with cliffs on the left dropping into the upper Goldie; snow dropping moderately away to the right … now toward Mt Olympus, as we pass the headwaters of the Hoh. There is another small ‘crest-peak’, at the top end of Bear Pass setting, with another enormous view into the Goldie realms.
Bear Pass ends the can’t-miss-it crest-walk. A broad and somewhat poorly-defined basin-feature spreads out south of and below the Pass (which itself is marked or identified, mainly just by its snow-field). In terms of a Bailey Range Traverse, the task or goal now is to identify Dodwell-Rixon Pass, which is the beginning of the Elwha Snow Finger by which folks normally exit the high country, regain the main Elwha Trail, and return 27 miles to Whiskey Bend Trailhead.
Snow-travel rules & points apply notably to the Snow Finger. It is narrow with edge-effects, and there is a fast-moving stream with a tunnel or cavern beneath. It is rotting. Remain observant & alert; beware the temptation to ‘go into autopilot’ and just cruise down the easy snow-road. There are hazards here, though reports of incidents are not in evidence.
While the landscape below Bear Pass is open, it is sometimes unclear which route to use, and there are several options. Snow conditions can affect which paths are open, or more or less inviting. All that really matters, is to get to Dodwell Rixon, to begin the hike down, and out. From the upper part of Bear Pass, the Dodwell Rixon goal is SSW, toward the right-hand end of a rank of major peaks (Mount Queets, and points north). Further to the right, more SW, is additional moderately falling, which leads into the Queets headwater. Dodwell Rixon falls away to the SE, or SSE, and keeps the imposing mountain slopes on its right, going down. The Snow Finger channel quickly becomes a canyon, and it is clear that one wants to enter it from its upper end, which is Dodwell Rixon Pass; if you come down above the canyon-side, turn right and you will come to its head.
Elwha Snow Finger is about 2 miles long from Dodwell Rixon to the upper end of Elwha Basin. It is mostly straight & even, although there is a Hump-feature where snow may have piled up, and a few very weak dog-legs. At the end of the snow, one must find the primitive Elwha Basin Way Trail, which goes straight up the right-hand south slope through a slide-alder and devil’s club thicket. There’s a marker-cairn, and the path is quite visible. The path climbs out of the canyon through the tangled thicket, and then arches east into the fairly steep Basin. The Way then drops down-slope through the Basin to the NE. It leads to a ford of the small Elwha, which can be difficult. (But see Elwha Basin river crossing alternative.)
If the Way Trail ford in the lower Elwha Basin seems ill-advised (the little river can rise & fall a lot, daily, even late in a dry year, due to snow-melt), climb back up through the Basin and turn left toward the cleanly-demarkated, heavily-forested lower (NW) slope of Mount Seattle. There are a couple smaller streams to cross, but they are not prohibitive, and braid smaller, upslope. Go into the heavy timber and quarter gradually downslope to the east, aiming for a point in the gentler canyon below, roughly a quarter or half mile below the bottom of the Basin. The slope of the river eases pronouncedly below the Basin, in the woods, and large log-jams span it. There are no logs in the severe erosion-channel, through the Basin; they’ve all been swept down below.
These open stands of good-sized timber next to Elwha Basin tend to be popular with a good-sized elk herd. They use if for loafing & bedding, and have heavy trails coursing along the mountain flank, making it even easier to use this side of the river, and cross on the log-jams below the Basin.
There is a well-known and worthwhile mid-point exit or entrance route, usually referred to as Ludden-Scott Saddle. Traditionally an ’emergency’ exit, often explained as weather-related, but commonly chosen after a few days struggling through mountains without a real trail, and seeing close-up that it gets rougher as it goes … Ludden-Scott has acquired a more up-beat status & role, in recent times. The approach-route to it is fast & easy, on the unusually favorable Long Ridge Trail up to Dodger Point, and then a very rewarding off-trail track on complex terrain (with expansive views of the Long Creek and Goldie River watersheds, out to Mount Scott and Stephen Peak, and the shear Goldie-facing Bailey Range cliffs), and finally over Mount Ferry. For energetic hikers, Ludden-Scott is a reasonable Friday afternoon to Sunday evening quick-outing into the central Bailey Range, and back at work Monday morning.
Hikers have traditionally begun the unofficial Bailey Range Traverse from the end of High Divide Trail, out of Seven Lakes Basin, but this option now has social & regulatory complications & issues. Camping in the popular Basin has been subject to special rules for years, and extending beyond it along the High Divide-stub leading to the start of the Bailey route. An enthusiastic hiker can readily get through Seven Lakes per se in one day, and even out to the tail end of High Divide, but to actually leave the controlled area before setting up camp, requires addressing certain rugged off-trail challenges … tired and with nightfall coming. Experienced, repeat hikers can do this, but under current policy new hikers would pragmatically need to get the special permits, stay a night in the ‘hot zone’ … and thus further exacerbate statistics showing high usage of the area. Permits are limited, and may not (often won’t) be available. These considerations constitute incentives to sidestep tradition …
Two close modifications of the traditional northern approach are open to us. The first, using Appleton Pass and Cat Creek Way Trail, is well-known and frequently employed, but it does involve a limited though significant off-trail connector. The second, using Olympus Shelter and Hoh Lake Trail is entirely on good maintained trails, but starts from the banks of the Hoh River and climbs over 4,000′. Both options assume a late-afternoon/evening (Friday) staging-hike, then an overnight camp, and finally a dash the next morning through part of the upper Seven Lakes area and completely beyond the extended management-zone and out to the nearest unrestricted ground, which is on Mt Carrie. Both are, like going straight through Seven Lakes itself, a bit much for a single day and could leave the tyro still on tightly-permitted terrain, facing unfamiliar & demanding off-trail conditions, at day’s end.
The Appleton Pass approach starts at Boulder Creek Trailhead, deadend of the Olympic Hot Springs Road of the Elwha River, and is just 7.5 miles from the 1,800′ parking area to good camping and water in subalpine meadows at 5,200′. The upper meadows at Appleton are closer to the intended Cat Creek Way Trail route. The Way Trail is not bad, but will typically entail a few route-finding delays, the first time. There is also a nice small-lake camp a couple hundred feet down over the Cat Creek side of Spread Eagle Pass, at the beginning of the Way (it is clearly seen from the route, and can also be handy, returning). The big advantage of staging at Appleton, is the mile of elevation, beginning at highter elevation, after the first late-day staging-hike.
The Olympus Shelter (950′) approach begins from Hoh River Trailhead, at the Hoh River Visitor Center. This is a very nice old river-side meadow, 9.7 ‘flat’ miles up the main Hoh River Trail. From there (the next morning), Hoh Lake Trail goes 6.5 miles up to High Divide and the upper end of Seven Lakes Basin, followed by about 5 miles along the Divide (with great full-height views – arguably the best – of Mount Olympus) to the off-trail start. Time on the Divide trail is time well-spent, although repeated irresistable photo-ops can impede progress. Hoh Lake Trail makes intensive use of the switchback-technique; it may have been designed as a horse trail. Although a little long (and heavily forested), it gains the heights at a steady, engineered grade, allowing minimal wear-and-tear. The added 2.5 miles this approach-option spends along the High Divide (compared to the Appleton-Cat option) is a big plus, in clear weather.
The High Divide Trail deadends perched on the steep rock pitch of Cat Peak. In the 1930s they were blasting a small-gauge road (Grand Canyon style horse-trail) into the Olympic core (from several directions), when they either ran out of money, were called off, or chased off. The folly of dynamiting a path into wilderness, and the poetic justice of the symbolism is hard to miss … well worth a pause.
But not for too long, because although this is the end of the trail, the regulated zone nonetheless continues over Cat Peak, across the upcoming Cat Walk arete, up a NW falling ridgeline off Mount Carrie on the far side from Cat and past the Shangrila of Boston Charley Camp (with tiny water source) several hundred steep feet up, until finally cresting onto the mild sidehill south shoulder of Carrie, proper. Only then has the controlled-camping area been left behind, and normal camping becomes legal. There is worse than contribution numbers that support usage-restriction (by relying upon/vying for Permits within Seven Lakes), and that is contributing to Ranger’s observations of unpermitted camping-activity, within the designated zone.
Either of these alternate approaches to the northern end of the Bailey Range Traverse, could also be used as a quick trip to Mt Carrie (and the Cat Walk crossing). The return trip out & down for both is considerably faster & easier than the trip in & up. It’s one long Sunday from Carrie to the car at the trailhead, assuming reasonable pacing & fitness. But Carrie is also one of those places folk note they would like to be able to slow down and explore more … many see the little side-path that leads to the 6,995′ summit, but few take it.