The Sol Duc is the quick one. Rain-fed rather than glacial, it rises hard on a storm and then clears faster than its big gray neighbors, so the fishable window on the drop opens sooner — which is why it's so many anglers' first call after a blow. It's also the most distinctive river in the Quillayute system: alongside the wild winter run it carries the peninsula's most meaningful component of wild summer steelhead, fish that hold in the bedrock pockets and pools through the warmer months and come, occasionally and gloriously, to a swung fly. The upper river runs through Olympic National Park past Sol Duc Falls; the lower river is the steelhead water. Swing intruders and tubes on the winter drop, go smaller and sparser for the summer fish in low clear water, and remember the flow gauge here is not to be trusted — read the stage trend and the color of the water with your own eyes. The Sol Duc rewards the angler who's already in the car when the rain stops.

• Sedimentary