Rather than go up into the mountains, I checked out the Elwha River today. They’ve removed two hydro dams and the river is now running free, allowing fish to spawn for the first time in 100 years.
The river is finding it’s course in what used to be reservoir, depositing silt and moving it around. The silt in the river is still that grayish color which indicates glacial debris; it looks very much like the ash in the rivers after Mt St Helens erupted. They’ve temporarily suspended work on the project for a year until the silt washes it’s way out, and it builds an estuary feature on the Strait.
Access into the work zones is still quite limited, hardy hikers can get some excellent views, though. Fascinating project.