FORKS, WA – A washout has closed the only access road to the Olympic National Park’s popular Hoh Rain Forest since December.
But on Thursday, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced the state would pitch in $623,000 from its reserves to repair the Upper Hoh Road. Officials hope to reopen the road in May.
Ferguson said he’d read a news report about the road, the gateway to the rainforest that saw nearly 460,000 visitors last year.
“It’s the kind of thing where, if you’re just a Washingtonian, you read an article and think ‘for god’s sake, can’t someone just figure out this bureaucracy and get the road fixed,’” he said. “Because it’s a lot of money, but it’s not that much money.”
The county didn’t have the money needed for repairs. State lawmakers had previously said it may be hard to help given a looming budget deficit.
And efforts to secure federal dollars to fund the repairs were proving difficult.
In a press conference at The Mountaineers building in Seattle, the governor said over 100 private donors had shelled out a combined $27,000 to help fix the road.
Heavy rains elevated the neighboring Hoh River, eroding part of the county-maintained road, causing the park to announce the closure Dec. 23. The road is located southeast of Forks, in a remote part of the Olympic Peninsula.
At the time of the closure, the county warned the road was “in imminent danger of failure,” but the condition hadn’t drastically changed by the end of February.
The Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program has funded repairs on the road in the past. But then-Gov. Jay Inslee didn’t include Jefferson County in his emergency declaration signed in January to unlock aid to make repairs after the November bomb cyclone, making it harder to get federal money.
Heidi Eisenhour, a Jefferson County commissioner, said she’s lost a lot of sleep the past three months working with county staff and “trying to bake the recipe they’ve used in the past to do this repair,” to no avail.
The state’s solution came together quickly. On Friday night, Ferguson called state Rep. Adam Bernbaum, D-Port Angeles. The next day, the governor and local officials discussed repairs to the road in a videoconference. Within three days, the fundraiser had brought in the money needed to augment the state dollars.
Ferguson also amended Inslee’s emergency declaration to include Jefferson and Clallam counties. If federal dollars come through, that money can reimburse the state. The reserve money, set aside for the governor to help businesses in need, comes from unclaimed lottery winnings.
The road closure had reportedly led to prospective campers receiving notice that they may want to cancel their reservations because the rainforest may stay closed for months. No full-time residents live beyond the washout site.
In 2023, tourists spent more than $440 million in Jefferson and Clallam counties, generating tens of millions in state tax revenue.
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