Our next destination was the Olympic Pennensula of Washington State.  I’ve visited here many times looking for Bigfoot and enjoying the Quinault rainforest, camping on the beach at Queers, and looking at the Alp-like vistas at Hurricane Ridge.  A few years back I read a book called “West of Here” about a then and now story set in make believe Port Bonita which I really think was Port Angeles where we camped.  Anyway.  The book was about the  1880’s when growth needed a project which could sustain the area.  So the Elwha Dam was planned and constructed.  The ‘now’ part of the story concerns taking the dam down so that the area could return to its natural and ancient ways.

Guess what!  The dam WAS built in the 1880’s and in 1992 congress, in a moment of clear sightedness passed a law to take the dam down to restore the salmon spawning areas of the Elwha River.  We were camped on it’s banks and after a 10 minute hike saw history in the making!

The restoration project began in 2011 and was finished in 2013.  I downloaded some before and after pictures and have added some of my own. Cannot tell you what it felt like to visit a place with such historic value.

The picture at the top is of the dam being deconstructed.  It was built at a point where the river makes a 90 degree left-hand turn which doesn’t show up in this picture.  The lake formed in front of it.

 This is what is left of the dam now.  What looks like cement is actually material on top of the hill to prevent erosion.  This is the part of the dam which shows up as white on the top picture.

This is the empty lake bed of today.

Here is the turn where the dam used to be.  The river just cascades through this gap on it’s way to the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

The river from above.  The cloth covered part is on the lower right.  I have always contended that man is a very poor conservator of our planet, but here is a case where we actually did the right dam thing!!