Wild river creates hurdles for visitors, but freed Elwha now a better home for fish

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Olympic National Park is in a fight with the Elwha River in its goal to maintain visitor access to the Elwha River valley.

At the same time, officials are seeing the Elwha River provide a more hospitable welcome for fish.

The river, now free from the two dams that regulated its flow for a century, continues to force park officials to close the gate on Olympic Hot Springs Road near the Madison Falls trailhead.

The gate was closed over a year ago when storms in November 2015 washed out a section of the road, reactivated a side channel of the Elwha River and destroyed infrastructure.

After crews installed a temporary bridge to carry traffic over the side channel of the river and repaired the road, the park reopened the road to vehicles Jan. 26.

For the first time in 14 months, visitors were allowed to drive as far as the Glines Canyon Overlook, where they could look over what was formerly known as Lake Mills.

The repaired area worked exactly as park officials planned, but vehicle access was short-lived.

The park closed the gate three weeks later, on Feb. 16, after heavy rain and snow melt caused the river to flow through the former Elwha Campground and across the road, about a quarter mile south of the new bridge.

“The fact we need to get used to is the Elwha River is now a wild river and it will move across its floodplain,” said Barb Maynes, ONP spokeswoman.

The road is still open to bicycle and foot traffic, she said.

The National Park Service led a $325 million effort to restore the Elwha River to its natural state with the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams.

The river has been free from the two dams since 2014.

Park officials anticipate reopening the road in mid- to late March. By that time, Whiskey Bend Road should also reopen, Maynes said.

Crews are now waiting for the risk of flood to go down before repairing the road.

Maynes said extensive amounts of material washed away during the flood, which happened after a logjam in the main river repositioned itself.

Heavy precipitation or snowmelt would likely cause the river to flow over the road again.

“We want to make sure [the road] has a high chance of staying put — at least for the summer and spring,” Maynes said.

Maynes anticipates there will be an ongoing battle between Olympic National Park and the Elwha River.

In the short term, the river will likely continue to have small victories over the park, which hopes to repair the road almost as quickly as the river destroys it, Maynes said.

Visitors should be aware of high water. If the river is running close to 5,000 cubic feet per second or higher, it may impact the road, which may force Olympic National Park to close it, she said.

“We want to emphasize that people should really be monitoring the weather forecast and river levels,” she said. “Plan ahead.”

Because the river is constantly changing, there is no quick fix, and park officials cannot predict where the next damage will be.

“The biggest take-home is this is a dynamic, wild river,” she said. “What happens this winter may not happen next winter.”

Park officials anticipate the road would be open throughout the summer, but conditions change all the time through the winter, Maynes said.

While the Elwha River continues to make access to the region difficult, Olympic National Park is looking at a long-term solution that would allow consistent access to the valley.

The long-range plan would include “potentially realigning the road within the Elwha River valley and looking at a long-term visitor access plan,” she said.

Before the road washed out last winter, park officials had planned to start making major repairs to the road this year. The river has changed those plans.

When the river washed out the road last year, it became clear that officials needed to take a step back and re-evaluate whether the road is on the best route through the valley, Maynes said.

“Rather than repair the road where it is, maybe we ought to save the money and put it toward the bigger-picture project,” she said. “What we need to do is take a long-range view of the Elwha and where we can relocate the road.”

At this point, there are no plans set in stone to relocate the road, but the project is under consideration. There isn’t yet a timeline for the project either.

“Maybe the analysis will reveal it should stay where it is,” Maynes said.

Park employees continue to work on the two campgrounds that campers flocked to every summer, both of which have since closed.

The Altair Campground, which was nestled along the edge of the Elwha River, was destroyed by the river and is now a day-use area, Maynes said.

The goal is to install a picnic area in the Altair by the end of June.

The Elwha Campground, the lower of the two, is closed indefinitely. The river left behind a layer of sediment through the entire campground.

Crews have removed most of the infrastructure from the campground, including firepits, picnic tables and bathrooms. The picnic shelter still remains and is available for day use.

“That will not be a campground,” she said. “It’s damaged beyond the point it can be used as a campground.”

As park officials continue to work on access through the valley, they also continue to see signs of habitat restoration in the river.

Officials have now spotted winter steelhead as far as Cat Creek, just downstream of Rica Canyon. It’s the fifth species spotted above the Glines Canyon Dam site, Maynes said.

Chinook, sockeye, bull trout and summer steelhead also have migrated through both dams to reach the upper river, while adult pink, coho and chum salmon, and Pacific lamprey have passed upstream of the former Elwha Dam site.

Park officials continue to monitor the upper dam site after rock blasting over the past two years aimed at improving fish passage.

“The fact that we now have seen five species above Glines Canyon Dam is a very encouraging sign,” Maynes said. “It’s a very hopeful sign.”

More work is planned this summer on the lower dam site, where metal stuck out of the former dam’s foundation, posing a risk to rafters.

Crews with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed about 80 percent of the rebar last summer and plan to finish the job this summer.

Park officials are still urging rafters to exit the river before getting to the dam site to avoid the debris.

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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.