[guschiggins51]

I'm late to the party here. Last time I went by Home Sweet Home shelter in about 2001, it was looking pretty flattened and falling over. The Lena Lake structures which got mentioned here. I know it was an old scout camp... On the far side of the lake (across from where the privy and group camp are) on the way to the Valley of the Hidden Men trail to the Brothers, there are some clearings back in the woods that are flattened out. There is definitely some very old wood back there that looks like some sort of a structure. That would also be the north side of the lake like the description had. I know this is an Olympics topic, but last time hiking past it at Mt. Rainier, I was surprised that the Nickel Creek shelter had been totally disassembled. There's just a big flat area where the group camp used to be.

[Olympic Hiker]

[reststep]

I don’t know about Wilderness Watch but Olympic Park Associates now known as Olympic Park Advocates was involved in preventing the new shelters that had already been built from being lifted to Home Sweet Home and Low Divide. Olympic Park Associates was also involved in preventing the Dosewallips River Road from being reopened.

[Dick B]

Did anyone out there ever visit the old Lower Lena Lake shelter? It was on the south shore of the lake near where the trail hits the lake. Back in '54 our trail crew had a beer bust there one night after maintaining the trail from the road. Drank lots of Olys.

[reststep]

I passed by the shelter at Lower Lena several times back in the 50’s. I don’t know if I am remembering this correctly but I think the trail went by near the shelter.

[Olympic Hiker]

Just saw a trip report for the Upper South Fork Skokomish trail. The writer of the TR went down to the Camp Harps shelter and said it was flattened due to a tree falling on it.

[RThorn]

Any history on the Bear Camp shelter between Mt Rose and Mt Ellinor? I have pics if you need them.

[Kfeddock]

I am writing a book about the shelters and, after receiving an email from the FS that Harps Shelter was down, had to go see for myself. My Malinois and I hiked down there yesterday. Sure enough, she's down. Hard. I doubt there is enough structural integrity (as in any) to allow it to be repaired.

[Ski]

[Olympic Hiker]

I camped at the Queets Campground a few years back and thought the ranger station had a tired look to it and that it looked like it needed some tlc.

[Ski]

RE: Queets Ranger Station - Queets Valley - Olympic National Park The well was fouled (according to information passed on to me) by the septic system of the Ranger Station. The capped wellhead can be found about 60 feet west of the structure. Water had to be hauled in via a large tanker truck from Kalaloch. The water that was hauled in was pumped into the large black plastic tank behind the structure. The water in the tank was not drinkable. Drinking water had to be hauled in or pulled out of the river. The water system for the cabin is a Mickey-Mouse affair which employs a solar panel, which keeps a lead-acid automotive deep-cycle battery (located UNDER the structure) charged up. The battery runs the pump which supplies water to the kitchen sink, the toilet, and the shower. You can wash dishes, take a shower, and flush the toilet, but drinking the water will cause almost immediate gastrointestinal problems. The chimney collapsed during the winter of 2006, the same year that the lower Queets River Road washed out just above Matheny Creek. It was two years before repair crews were able to get to the building and patch the three-foot-diameter hole in the roof. In the meantime, torrential winter rains flooded the structure, no doubt causing some structural damage. Additionally, it afforded the resident bat population a nice new cozy home. The structure was infested with mice, and (inexplicably) flies. Notwithstanding all openings being screened, there didn't seem to be any way to keep the flies out. The structure's south-facing orientation, with its all-glass front, made the inside of the structure like a hothouse on nice summer days. Opening all the doors and windows didn't provide any relief - it was miserably hot inside the building. Over the years, it had been vandalized several times, and hosted more than one party of squatters. It also became something of a repository for garbage, and cast-off items left by previous "tenants" and trail crews. The propane system functioned fabulously. The stove worked properly, and the big gas furnace would heat up the inside of that building to oven temperature in less than half an hour. Unfortunately, some jackass pried on the refrigerator door and bent it, making the refrigerator useless. (That would have been a simple fix, but ONP chose not to effect remedy.) All things considered, the best course of action is for the Park to remove it in its entirety, before it turns into another pile of detritus like the remains of the structure up at Smith Place. The George Anderson homestead structures, located only a short distance from Hwy 101 on the Lower Queets River Road, were the last of the original structures extant in the valley. The last of those collapsed a couple years ago. When the Ranger Station is removed, the only man-made structures that will remain in the Queets Valley upstream of the reservation will be the vault toilets up at the campground. (It is possible there may yet be remains of an old pump house and an old outhouse in the lower valley, but my guess is they're probably gone too.)

Kings Bottom Campground outhouse - Queets Valley - Olympic National Park - (photo courtesty Cliff Hay)

[RAW-dad]

Some of these photos -from June 2022- were posted in a recent TR on the Bogachiel, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to put them (and a few others) here. Fifteen Mile is in bad shape, with lots of garbage in and about the structure. I don't think it's going to last too much longer with out some sort of refurb. Hyak seems sound, as does Mink Lake, although the latter had some funky white bacterial(?) growth on the ground and a post. It was certainly water tight, as we cooked dinner in it during a pretty persistent rain.

9_Fifteen Mile shelter

Fifteen Mile Inside

12_Hyak shelter

Hyak Inside

21_Mink Lake shelter

Mink Lake 2

[meck]

Here is my collection of photos of ONP/ONF shelters and structures. I've hiked past a few more, but did not have any battery left in my camera (Happy Hollow and Camp Wilder on the Elwha), it was too dark (Bear(?) Shelter on the Dosewallips), and for some reason don't have any good photos of the Shelters near the start of the Tubal Cain trail, nor Upper Big Quilcene. I think all of these shelters already have photos in this thread. [EDIT] Found a photo I took of the Ten Mile Shelter near the Upper Big Quilcene TH.

Enchanted Valley Chalet, Quinault, 22 Aug 2012

Elkhorn Barn, Elwha, 6 Jul 2013

Elkhorn Shelter, Elwha, 6 Jul 2013

Elkhorn Guard Station, Elwha, 6 Jul 2013

Remann's Cabin, Elwha, 6 Jul 2013

Hayes River Guard Station, Elwha, 6 Jul 2013

Camp Siberia, Dosewallips, 14 Sep 2013

Heather Park Lodge foundation, Klahane Ridge area (sort of), 11 Nov 2013

River Camp Shelter, Dungeness, 22 Mar 2014

Ned Hill tower structure, 22 Mar 2014

Humes Ranch Cabin, Elwha, 30 Mar 2014

Michael's Cabin, Elwha, 30 Mar 2014

Ten Mile Shelter, Big Quilcene TH, 2 Jun 2014

Three Forks Shelter, 20 July 2014

Remains of Shelter near the Cameron Creek-Grand Pass trail juncture, 20 Jul 2014

Tunnel Creek North Shelter, 2 Sep 2014

Solduc Falls Shelter, 8 Sep 2014

Site of the Home Sweet Home Shelter, 27 Sep 2014

Remains of the Sourdough Mtn Shelter, 25 Jan 2015

Camp Handy Shelter, Dungeness, 1 Mar 2015

Boulder Shelter, Dungeness, 1 Mar 2015\

Sink Lake Shelter (Mt Townsend), 7 Mar 2015

Mink Lake Shelter, Solduc, 22 Mar 2015

Trapper Shelter, N Fk Quinault, 2 Aug 2015

Low Divide Ranger Station, 2 Aug 2015

Remains of Shelter at the base of the Cedar Lakes way trail (Falls Camp?), 16 Aug 2015

Site of the Sundown Lake Shelter, 27 Sep 2015

Pyramid Peak lookout site, Lake Crescent, 18 Jan 2016

Church Creek Shelter, 19 Mar 2016

Camp Harps Shelter (RIP), 19 Mar 2016

North Fork Solduc Shelter, 28 Aug 2016

Site of Belview Shelter, 2 Sep 2017

Cape Alava-Ozette Ranger Station, 12 Sep 2017

Osett Memorial, 12 Sep 2017

Prairie Homestead & Well (I also have pics of some of the barns & outbuildings), 15 Feb 2018

Site of the Anderson Butte Lookout, Wynoochee area, 26 May 2018

Mulkey Shelter, Col. Bob, 10 July 2018

West Fork Humptulips Shelter, 4 Aug 2018

Happy Four Shelter, Hoh, 24 Aug 2018

Olympus Guard Station, Hoh, 24 Aug 2018

Olympus Shelter, Hoh, 24 Aug 2018

Some of the Tull City Ruins (~0.25 miles south of the "B-17 Pond"), Tubal Cain area, 3 Aug 2019

Fifteen Mile Shelter, Bogachiel, 22 Jul 2020

Hyak Shelter across the overgrown meadow, Bogachiel, 22 Jul 2020

Some of the remains of the Twenty One Mile Shelter, Bogachiel, 22 Jul 2020

[zimmertr]

[Hesman]

Visited the Camp Harps Shelter remains today.