“–the Best whitewater in Washington?”

I have been looking at that description in the ‘Paddlers Guide to the Olympic Peninsula’ for 10 years now, wondering and dreaming if it really was what I had been imagining. I tried to go a couple times this spring, but since summer arrived much later than expected this year I thought my window for getting in there this year was gone. Finally, Brett Barton sent a message that said, “Tshletshy next weekend?” After looking over the logistics again and understanding that we were still going to have to deal with 6 feet of snow at the top of the pass, we made plans. Our plan – Hike in on Monday, boat on Tuesday, out on Wednesday, sounded good at the time.

Looking up the Quinalt River Valley

I tried hard to convince a couple paddlers to go, but in the end it was just Brett and I. The Tshletshy is a major undertaking. Once in the N.F. Quinault valley you have to hike up and over the pass by Bear Creek gaining about 3,000ft in elevation, then drop into the headwaters. We met up on Sunday and decided to start hiking. After about 4 miles and gaining about 1,400 feet in elevation we set up camp.

Skyline trailhead

Our ticket to the Tshletshy drainage

Crossing a tributary to Big Creek

4 miles in & Brett is still smiling

The next day we hiked up to the snow line, which started @ 2,800 feet, many hours later we hit the top of the pass at 3,608ft. And started the descent into the Tshletshy.

6 miles in..

..almost at the top.

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Gearing up for the descent into Tshletshy

It took a long time to get down and we eventually ran out of daylight and had to camp in a bare tree well surrounded by snow. The next morning we leisurely rolled out of camp while we listened to the elk calls from the hills above us.

We had lost the trail the day before in the snow and were going off our maps and GPS to get us down to the put in. The trail down into the Tshletshy had been long abandoned making progress to the river a little harder.


Trying to reach the headwaters

Snow melt at the put-in

At the put in we had what looked like a low flow, but later in the trip it all evened out.. We paddled down to the first gorge with high hopes and found wood in the inner gorge blocking 4 of the 6 drops. We portaged on the right, crossed the gorge and finished the portage on the left. After the second gorge there were many signs of massive flooding in the valley. Many of the tributaries had blown out and sent old growth trees down the creek placing them in mid flow at the wider sections of the creek.

Looking down into the last drop in the first gorge

After a few portages over downed trees we set up camp early and rested for our next big day.

Camp #3

There was a lot of this..

Day 4 – We reached the third gorge called “The Tshlasm” within 20 min. out of camp. Here the creek dropped deeper and deeper into a gorge over a series of large waterfalls. We portaged on the right, continuing to look into the gorge, as we passed by a few drops that looked intriguing.

Brett looking, deep, into the third gorge.

At this point I was beginning to wonder were the Best Whitewater in Washington was.. After a couple more log portages, there it was. Miles of read and run, class IV & V drops in an untouched pristine gorge. We saw many signs of wildlife, even paddling by a bear cub down in the deeper part of the gorge.

Getting into the goods..

We reached the confluence with the Queets River at about dark and set up our last camp on a comfortable gravel bar. The next morning we woke up to light rain and decided to paddle out early.

Leaving camp #4 at 5:30 am, Queets River paddle out

All of the paddling reports that Brett and I had heard of were from 8-10 years ago. Either people had never heard of it or wanted to go check it out.. We went in knowing that there was a big wind storm in 2007 that downed many trees and littered many of the creeks in that area. As well as a couple floods in the past 10 years. We had our fair share of portages in the flat rocky sections, over and under some of the largest trees I’ve seen in a drainage. In the end it was an amazing trip, which does hold some of the best whitewater in Washington, worth every bit of effort that went into it. The scenery is mind numbing and the overall experience is unforgettable! I would highly recommend a map and GPS for this trip, it helped us from walking to far in the wrong direction with a loaded boat a few times, since much of the upper trail was covered in snow.

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