Day Hike - Spruce Railroad Trail

At the Fairholme General Store there are restrooms and lunch food can be purchased.  We will have lunch together at a picnic table by the lake and the store.

After lunch we will caravan west to Camp David Junior Road and turn right onto it, continuing to the parking area with a restroom near the end of the road.  From there we will start hiking east on the wide, paved, level Spruce Railroad Trail, a former railroad grade, to Devil's Punch Bowl, where we will take a rest break before returning by the same route.  The hiking route will take us through two former railroad tunnels that have recently been upgraded to allow the trail to go through them.

Following the hike, we will caravan back to U.S. 101, where we turn right and then left onto Sol Duc Road and the entrance booth for Olympic National Park, where each car must show a National Park Pass or pay a $30 entrance fee.  From there we continue ten miles to Sol Duc Campground Loop A, where we have adjacent campsites reserved, and will set up camp for Saturday night.

Depending on what rules are in effect at the time, we may have an opportunity for a small fee to enter the nearby Hot Springs before dinner.  We will join together at one of our campsites for a camp dinner, followed by smores around the campfire, if fires are permitted.

This hike is part of the June 5-6 Sol Duc Hotsprings Car Camp, involving the Saturday day hike on the Spruce Railroad Trail, the Saturday night encampment at Sol Duc Campground  and hiking the Sol Duc Falls Loop Trail on Sunday.   Complete details are on the Tacoma Branch Events Calendar.  Signup for the car camp is by registering for both related day hikes.  Anyone registering for either of the day hikes must register for the other one and participate in the Saturday night encampment.  Leader permission is required for both day hikes to assure compliance.  

Meet at 11:30 AM at the Fairholme Store at the west end of Crescent Lake on US 101.  The address is 221121 US 101, Port Angeles, WA. 98363.  If the parking lot is full, park at the boat dock parking lot, reached by heading west to Camp David Jr. Road, where you turn right and then right again on the boat dock road to the boat dock parking lot.  It is a short walk from the boat dock to the store.  No parking pass is required at either parking lot.