On its relatively short 51-mile journey, the Queets drains 445 square miles -- the peninsula’s second largest watershed. The Queets displays all the characteristics of a Pacific Northwest glacial river: a tint of green “color,” large gravel bars, huge logjams, wide flood plains with alder bottoms and spring ponds, and glacial terraces.

Though it’s hours away from major metropolitan areas and tends to blow out -- not to mention the difficulty most visiting anglers have in reading large glacial rivers -- the Queets has for decades been one of the state’s most beloved winter steelhead rivers.

In his 1960s classic, Northwest Angling, Enos Bradner dedicated more words to the Queets than any other Olympic Peninsula river except the Quillayute System, which includes four rivers -- the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey. “It has an immense winter run,” he wrote, “as well as a good run of summer fish.”

Trophy potential is one factor that draws anglers to the Queets from throughout the world. Big 20-pound fish aren’t caught every day, or even every week. But anglers still take enough of them from the Queets that they really aren’t that big a deal.

In recent years, tribal nets have taken fish in excess of 30 pounds. Trey Combs’ first book, The Steelhead Trout, mentioned a 37-pound steelhead. And in Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies, he speculated that the Queets could host the largest winter steelhead in the nation.

It still produces a lot of fish as well, though over the last decade its returns have fluctuated considerably, as have those of many Northwest steelhead rivers. During the early 1990s, many historically productive steelhead systems declined significantly. But the Queets’ wild run actually increased from 8,000 to 12,000 fish.

But several times during the late 1990s, the number of wild fish fell below the 4,100-fish escapement target set by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Starting in 2001, the National Park Service imposed more restrictive regulations and closed the river early for several years. Wild runs have rebounded recently, and escapement goals have been met since 2001.

Despite these ups and downs, sport harvest on the Queets has remained fairly consistent in recent years, largely due to the 150,000 to 200,000 hatchery steelhead smolts that the Quinault Tribe releases annually into the Salmon River. During the 2001-02 winter season, the Queets System gave up 1,855 steelhead, earning it 8th place among Washington systems. But of those fish, 1,500 came from the Salmon River.

Many hatchery fish are also caught in the main stem Queets below the Salmon. Until recently, wild harvest was permitted on the Queets main stem. But current regulations restrict anglers to two hatchery fish through February. For steelhead, catch-and-release is in effect March 1 through April 15. For updates, you can visit Nps.gov/olym/regs/FishRegs.htm.

Big runs of steelhead and the possibility of a trophy are a large part of the Queets’ mystique. But so many anglers are willing to make the long drive out to the Queets because, unlike nearly all other Northwest steelhead rivers, it’s still wild. From its Mount Olympus headwaters to the boundary of the Quinault Reservation, the Queets flows through land that’s utterly undeveloped and uninhabited.