OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Maintenance workers continued to clean up damaged roads and campgrounds in Olympic National Park on Monday, but the Hurricane Ridge Road’s planned winter opening Friday was still on track.
The storm that hit the park on Nov. 17 caused extensive damage to park roads and campgrounds, many of which remained closed Monday with no reopening date set.
On Monday, Sol Duc, Queets, North Shore Quinault, North Fork Quinault, and Graves Creek roads remained closed due to storm damage, and Hurricane Ridge was closed due to snow.
There were five separate landslides on Enchanted Valley trails, as reported by Olympic Mountains Experiment personnel studying rainfall on the Olympic Peninsula.
The trails had not been closed as of Monday.
The Kalaloch, Mora, Ozette, Hoh Rain Forest, South Shore Quinault, Lake Crescent and Staircase areas were open to the public Monday.
Dosewallips, Heart O’ the Hills, Hoh, Kalaloch, Mora, Ozette and Staircase campgrounds are open.
The Hurricane Ridge Road’s planned winter opening on Friday is on schedule, said Barb Maynes, spokeswoman for the park.
The park reported 21 inches of snow at the ridge on Monday, and up to five inches of additional snow was expected Monday night and today, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
Snow plow operations will begin Thursday to clear Hurricane Ridge Road in time for Friday’s opening.
The road is scheduled to be open during daylight hours, Fridays through Sundays and Monday holidays, weather permitting.
All vehicles must carry tire chains when traveling to Hurricane Ridge during winter.
Some of the most severe damage from the recent storm was to the Elwha River valley roads and campgrounds.
The park’s decision to close and evacuate areas ahead of last week’s storm was a good one, Maynes said.
The Elwha Ranger Station, which is typically staffed, was evacuated. Severe flooding of Olympic Hot Springs Road cut off access.
When the water receded from a creek that empties into the Elwha River, and a usually dry side channel of the waterway, it revealed a 60-foot section of the road was gone, washed out to a depth of about 6 feet in some places.
Park maintenance crew members were able to cross the breach and walk into the now-isolated parts of the park, Maynes said.
They determined that the Elwha Campground was severely damaged.
Maynes said there was additional damage to Altair Campground, which has been closed since it was damaged when the river changed its channel during a storm in December 2014.
She said there was no estimate yet on repairs to the road or to the two damaged campgrounds.
While the water levels were not particularly high compared to floods that took place before the dams were removed, the silt being carried by the river is making the river more dynamic, she said.
The silt, once trapped behind the Glines Canyon Dam, is forming new sandbars and redirecting the river water into different new or long-unused channels with each major rainstorm.
Sol Duc Hot Springs Road, west of Lake Crescent, remained closed due to both snow and trees down across the road.
The road is not closed for the season and will reopen once the downed trees are removed and as weather conditions allow, Maynes said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
