The Humptulips River is a river in Grays Harbor County

Grays Harbor County, Washington

Grays Harbor County is a county in the state of Washington, in the United States of America. As of 2010, the population was 72,797. The county seat is at Montesano, and its largest city is Aberdeen. The county is named after a large estuarine bay near its southwestern corner...

, Washington, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its main tributaries are the East Fork Humptulips River, about 20 miles (32.2 km) long (32 km), and West Fork Humptulips River, about 30 miles (48.3 km) long (48 km). After the forks join, the main river is approximately 20 miles (32 km) long.

The Humptulips has a drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 of 276 square miles (714.8 km²). The river's average discharge

Discharge (hydrology)

In hydrology, discharge is the volume rate of water flow, including any suspended solids , dissolved chemical species and/or biologic material , which is transported through a given cross-sectional area...

 is 1344 cuft/s, with a maximum recorded discharge of 37500 cuft/s, in November, 2006, and a minimum of 82 cuft/s, in September, 1944.

Variant names, according to the USGS, include Hum-tu-lups, Humptolups, Humtutup, and Um-ta-lah. The name comes from the Humptulips Indians, part of the Chehalis

Chehalis (tribe)

The Chehalis people are a native people of westernWashington state in the United States. They should not be confused with the similarly named Chehalis First Nation of the Harrison River in the Fraser Valley area of British Columbia....

 tribe. Some sources say the word "humptulips" means "hard to pole" while others say it means "chilly region".

Course

The Humptulips River originates in the Olympic National Forest

Olympic National Forest

Olympic National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in Washington, USA. With an area of 633,677 acres , it nearly surrounds Olympic National Park and the Olympic Mountain range. Olympic National Forest contains parts of Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, and Mason counties...

 in the East Fork and West Fork. This region of Olympic Peninsula

Olympic Peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...

 receives around 220 inches (5,588 mm) of precipitation annually, feeding many streams. The forks are separated by Humptulips Ridge. The West Fork is separated from the Quinault River

Quinault River

The Quinault River is a long river located on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. It originates deep in the Olympic Mountains in the Olympic National Park. It flows southwest through the "Enchanted Valley". Several miles above Lake Quinault the river is joined by its main...

 by Quinault Ridge, while the East Fork is separated from the Wynoochee River

Wynoochee River

The Wynoochee River is a long river located in the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. A tributary of the Chehalis River, the Wynoochee River rises in the Olympic Mountains within the Olympic National Park and flows generally south. Its drainage basin is in area...

 by Fitzgerald Peak.

Flowing south and southwest, the forks exit the mountains, merging about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) above the town of Humptulips

Humptulips, Washington

Humptulips is a census-designated place in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 255 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Humptulips is located at ....

. Near the town the river is crossed by U.S. Route 101

U.S. Route 101

U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101, is an important north–south U.S. highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States...

. The Humptulips Salmon Hatchery is located just below the town, at the mouth of Stevens Creek, a tributary of the Humptulips River. After the hatchery, the river turns south, flowing the last few miles before its mouth at North Bay of Grays Harbor, which empties into the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. There are two small towns near the river's mouth, Copalis Crossing and Tulips.

Although the Chehalis River ends when it flows into Grays Harbor as well, the Humptulips is sometimes considered the westernmost tributary of the Chehalis system, when Grays Harbor is considered part of the system.

Natural history

The Humptulips is actively eroding its banks at a rate estimated at 9 acres (36,421.7 m²) of bottomland washed away each year. The severity of erosion and stream bank degradation is due in part to the large scale logging that occurs in the river's basin. The East Fork area in particular has been heavily logged. Most of the land in the river's drainage basin is commercial forest. There are some areas of pasture and cropland as well. In the upper drainage basin there are 88 square miles (227.9 km²) within the Olympic National Forest. The Humptulip River's headwaters are managed by the Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is located in the U.S. state of Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula. The park can be divided into four basic regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side. U.S...

.

About 30 splash dam

Splash dam

A splash dam was a temporary wooden dam used to raise the water level in streams to float logs downstream to sawmills. By impounding water and allowing it to be released on the log drive's schedule, these dams allowed many more logs to be brought to market than the natural flow of the creek allowed...

s, used for log driving

Log driving

Log driving is a means of log transport which makes use of a river's current to move floating tree trunks downstream to sawmills and pulp mills.It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America...

, were built on the river. These dams decimated the native salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 runs. Several salmon hatcheries

Hatchery

A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled conditions; alternatively, it may be for economic reasons A hatchery is a...

 have been built in an attempt to mitigate the damage.

Cities and towns

Humptulips, Copalis Crossing, and Tulips are small towns located along the Humptulips River. The nearest cities are Hoquiam

Hoquiam, Washington

Hoquiam is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington state, United States. The town borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting but Hoquiam has maintained its independent identity...

 and Aberdeen

Aberdeen, Washington

Aberdeen is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis...

, located at the mouth of the Chehalis River on Grays Harbor.