The hike up Quartz Creek is one of the premier old growth hikes in our general neighborhood. From the Upper Lewis River Trailhead, the Quartz Creek Trail #5 runs 10 ¼ miles to meet the Gifford Pinchot’s Boundary Trail. It encounters three other trails on the way: Quartz Creek Butte Trail #5B, Snagtooth Trail #4, and French Creek Trail #5C.
On Saturday, I hiked only as far as the Quartz Creek Butte Trail, and then took that trail down to Quartz Creek Camp – just 10 miles round-trip. Of the creek crossings, the only intact major bridge is the first one, which hijacks a huge fallen log. The Platinum Creek Bridge, which is next, has seen better days.
Fungi of various sorts were erupting. Most abundant were the white russulas, some 10 inches across, which were pushing their filthy caps through the duff, as is their custom.
Straight Creek is a major crossing. The bedrock in this area consists of a welded tuff that is exposed in the colorful creek beds. Water levels were extremely low as this was the day before the first fall rains began, so I was able to cross Straight Creek with dry feet for the first time in three visits here. I visited Quartz Creek Falls, at the Straight Creek confluence, crawling out on the rocks to get a vertical view of the drop and the huge plunge pool.
EDIT: The waterfall in the picture is actually Lower Quartz Creek Falls. A more attractive waterfall, Quartz Creek Falls, is a 25-foot slide falls just out of sight upstream. Somehow this one had slipped from my memory and I forgot to visit it on this hike!
There’s another two miles before the next major creek crossing. This begins in a Douglas-fir plantation, but then descends to a stunning old-growth bottomland. The last time I visited here, in 2010, huge trees had come down over the trail, but soon thereafter, the Washington Trails Association came out with their crosscut saws and dealt with the massive windfall. It was plain sailing along a mossy bench under massive Douglas-firs and hemlocks to Snagtooth Creek. Again, most of the year, this would be a ford but it was a simple rock hop at low water.
Another half-mile took me to the junction with the Quartz Creek Butte Trail and I descended to Quartz Creek Camp and luncheon at the verge of Quartz Creek. A huge log offered an easy crossing and I found the Quartz Creek Butte Trail ascending the slope 80 yards upstream. I turned back, and it was an easy lope back – only one other hiker briefly encountered the whole day.
