Elk Creek starts up in the New Castle Mountain Range and is a fairly active stream until you reach the valley floor. It crosses the highway first close to keta lake and then runs through a canyon, it then levels out and crosses the highway again just past the elk creek campground. This is a small, shady site next to the creek. An open forest makes for easy exploration.
There are lots of private sites here and a wonderful little creek that runs behind most of them, you can expect to see plenty of wildlife here like deer, elk, black bears, and plenty of little forest creatures. There are a few trails that meander through the trees. I like this spot as it is right off the side of the highway with easy access. Visit the campsite
The Sayward Valley has some of the best trails on the island including the world-renowned Kusam Klimb trail. On the spring equinox, people arrive in Sayward to take part in the annual kusam klimb.
Once the creek crosses the highway it meanders slowly through a very lush forest, not very suitable for hiking as it is very thick. In the fall of 2022, my son and I hiked down the creek bed as the water was quite low. Several km down, we arrived at the salmon river. We wanted to see how many salmon were waiting to head upstream. We were not disappointed as there were quite a few pinks and masses of dog salmon all heading up the salmon river, plus many more waiting to go up elk creek.
Along the shore of the salmon river, just back in the trees, we came upon an injured eagle, he looked comfortable so we left him there. I went back the next morning to check on him, hoping he might have got his wings back under him. To my dismay, he was in worse shape, so I got a friend to join me and we carried him up to the highway, about 2 km. I put him in my car and then my wife and i delivered the bird to the rescue centre. Unfortunately, it did not survive.