The Last Dam Summer on the Elwha River

Now that we have your attention the Gateway Visitor Center would like to invite you outdoors and out of Jefferson County to the Elwha River valley. 

Anyone who takes this tour drive will have the opportunity to witness a “Once in a lifetime event” this summer. If you will travel 20 miles to the west of Port Angeles and take the roads traveling up or down the Elwha river as you sight the river you will be entering an environment that has evolved since the early 1900’s when the two Dams spanned the river stopping the free flow, fish runs, and sediment outflow from glaciers at the headwaters, changing this river dramatically.

This wild river; one of the longest of Olympic Peninsula rivers, once hosted the largest runs of salmon in the area, with some individual Chinook reaching weights of 100 pounds.  The planned removal of these two Dams on the Elwha will give us all the chance to see the rebirth of a wild river and the changes this work will create.  As the river begins to feel its freedom again, and the lakes recede, we will all have this one summer to look at what is surly going to change in this meandering river valley.  What you will see may not look quite the same in our lifetimes, or even next summer, as the river begins the process of cleaning out all that the dams held back. 

For more information go to www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm. and click on, “Restoring the Elwha,” or for the best spots to view some rapids and more information  on the whole Olympic Peninsula see us here at the Gateway Visitor Center near the Junctions of Highways 104 and 19.