One and a Half Mile Creek

One and a Half Mile Creek is a tributary of the Big Quilcene River on the eastern slope of the Olympic Peninsula. This tributary is an alternate way to enter the Big Quilcene gorge and offers an interesting hike with a nice series of waterfalls and pools.

From Highway 101 going south from Quilcene, take a right on Rocky Brook Road (FR 2620). The road leads SW uphill and crosses One and a Half Mile Creek at approx. 2 miles. There are several options for accessing this creek. One is to hike down an abandoned logging road that starts approx. 3/4 of a mile up Rocky Brook Road. The other options are to start your descent where the road crosses One and a Half Mile Creek or the unnamed tributary just before One and a Half Mile Creek on Rocky Brook Road. The advantages of taking the abandoned logging road are that you will be about a mile closer to your car when you exit the Big Quilcene at Rainbow Campground. The logging road will take a sharp eye to identify as it veers off to the right from Rocky Creek Road. The hike down the logging road is level all the way to One and a Half Mile Creek. However it does require some bushwhacking as nature is working fast to reclaim this road.

From where the old logging road crosses One and a Half Mile Creek, head downstream several hundred yards to R1. Several smaller waterfalls that can be downclimbed follow in the next 0.15mi. One and a Half Mile Creek eventually spills into the Big Quilcene. See Big Quilcene River for a continuation of the beta.