During the early 1900s, a dam was built to generate electricity on Washington’s Elwha River. In 1938, Olympic National Park was created and surrounded the dam site. The road to the dam became one of the few access places into the park with a Ranger Station, camping areas, picnic tables, entrance booth, and many service buildings.

In the 1990s, Kit and I read about the Park Services’ plan to remove the dam and visited it. See the picture of the dam wall. As an engineer, I wondered, “How will they manage this?” Well, they didn’t entirely. In 2014, they merely breached the wall and left the floodgates and spillway to the right of the wall. Now you can stand on the edge of the breach and look down 108 feet into a narrow gorge of rushing river.

However, the unrestrained river soon washed out two bridges on the road and left the Park Service’s facilities isolated. The abandoned buildings and dam exude an enticing ghostly feel. The round trip hike is a relatively easy seven miles.

A waste? I don’t think so. The hike along the tumbling river is beyond lovely. Fishery people speculated on the decades required to renew the massive salmon runs. In mere months, salmon nosed into places where none had been for over a hundred years. Wildlife, especially bears, are already benefitting from the salmon.

Visiting Elwha River recently was a wonderful experience. See me at the abandoned ranger station.