Sunday, June 16, 2013

Directions to Duncan Cedar Tree, south of Forks WA

Two years ago, Halvar and I found the way to this tree, with no problems. Even with pulling a 19 ft camping trailer we succeeded to stay out of trouble. This weekend I was taking my wife, Tess, for her first visit with "Mr Duncan". We ended up missing the last turn sign, and drove another 7-8 miles up the mountains till we gave up and turned around. After some GPS trouble shooting, and checking on some poor maps from internet, we could cover the losses, and finally after an extra 90 minutes we got to our goal. Now I decided to make directions , close to "idiot proof"", so no one else should have to struggle finding this amazing historic memorial tree. The worlds largest Cedar tree alive.

How to find the Worlds largest Cedar tree, The Duncan Cedar Tree,  about 21 miles south of downtown Forks WA USA.


The Duncan Cedar is located a 4.1 mile drive east of US 101. The exit from US 101 between located between mp 170 and mp 171. Travelling from Forks you will see this sign on US 101, approaching the exit. I would assume there is a similar sign for traffic going north.
Expect a 4.2 mile drive on narrow side roads, most gravel roads.
This is an edited screen shot from my Galaxy Note II smart phone.

Drive about 1.2 miles east on this paved side road. About 250 ft before a split, you will see this sign.

Keep right another 1.7 miles (2.9 miles from US 101). At intersection you will see this sign.

Go straight ahead another 0.7 miles (3.6 miles from US 101).
At intersection you will see this sign. 
Attention!! This is definitely the sign that is easy to miss, and that will make you a very very long day.... 
Look for this blue sign a few hundred feet up the road from the intersection
Turn right... You are very close now...

and go another 0.4 miles (4.0 miles from US 101), and see this sign..
Turn right, and drive about 600ft up the hill.
Up by the Duncan Cedar Tree, there is a pretty large "T", to turn your vehicle and park. I suggest you stop and walk from this sign, and check if there are any other vehicles/visitors parked in front of the tree. If not, If no other visitor is parked up by the tree, there is space enough to turn around a pick up truck pulling a 20 ft trailer, and park with out blocking for another visitor behind you.
This last 600 ft stretch is a dead end road. I you can, it is a good idea to have one of your passengers walk up to make sure no other visitor is coming down, leaving the Duncan Cedar Tree.

3 comments:

  1. Wish we had seen this post before venturing to see the big cedar this morning, even though the 3 large signs on the poles are no longer there. At the fork 2.9 miles from Highway 101, there is a faded orange sign on the ground that says "big tree" with an arrow to the right, and then at the next right turn, there is a small tree symbol with a right arrow. After the large blue "State Trust Land", it was a piece of cake. However, we missed the little sign with the tree symbol and we over shot and it took us 40 minutes after turning off 101 before finding the Duncan Memorial Cedar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comment
    Haven't visited "Duncan" in 5-ish years so directions might need som updates since signs are going down and the area might gave been logged too...
    I'll try to take some time next time I'm in the area to make some updates....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here is some Google Maps directions from Hwy 101. The last "500" ft are not included in directions...
    https://goo.gl/maps/42CbDiKJVuv

    ReplyDelete