Colonel Bob Wilderness is a 48 km2 protected area located in the southwest corner of Olympic National Forest in Washington State. It is named after 19th century orator Robert Green Ingersoll. Lake Quinault lies about 15 miles to the west. Elevations in the wilderness vary from 300 to 4,509 feet above sea level. The highest elevation is an unnamed peak; the second-highest elevation is Colonel Bob Mountain at 4,492 feet.
The wilderness is a temperate rain forest with annual rainfall greater than 150 inches.
Access by road is via South Shore Quinault Lake Road to the north, or FS Road 2204 to the south. Access by trail is by Colonel Bob Trail #851, Pete's Creek Trail #858 and Fletcher Canyon Trail #857.
Famous quotes containing the words colonel, bob and/or wilderness:
“The Colonel went out sailing,
He spoke with Turk and Jew
With Christian and with Infidel
For all tongues he knew.
“O what’s a wifeless man?” said he
And he came sailing home.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“It was because of me. Rumors reached Inman that I had made a deal with Bob Dole whereby Dole would fill a paper sack full of doggie poo, set it on fire, put it on Inman’s porch, ring the doorbell, and then we would hide in the bushes and giggle when Inman came to stamp out the fire. I am not proud of this. But this is what we do in journalism.”
—Roger Simon, U.S. syndicated columnist. Quoted in Newsweek, p. 15 (January 31, 1990)
“There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases,
As he sat there reading, aloud, the great blue tabulae.
They were those from the wilderness of stars that had expected more.
There were those that returned to hear him read from the poem of life,
Of the pans above the stove, the pots on the table, the tulips among them.
They were those that would have wept to step barefoot into reality....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)