Category: Bridge

North Fork Skokomish Fire Before and After (1)

The Olympic National Park opened up the Staircase Rapids Loop Trail on July 8th for the first time since the fire in 2025 devastated the area. The valley of the North Fork Skokomish was one of my favorite locations and I went to take photos of the area on the 8th. Each set of photos shows the same location before and after. Some images aren’t exact matches … but I did as well as I could with the images I had. The Staircase Loop Trail leaves from the Staircase Ranger Station, runs 1 mile (1.6 KM), crosses the river (on a bridge that was protected from the fire) and returns back to the parking lot.

The first set is from an overlook close to the trailhead (but slightly off the trail).

Up River View Before
Up River View After

The second set is of the Slate Creek crossing. The wood single stringer bridge is completely gone.

Slate Creek with Bridge (before)
Slate Creek Crossing with No Bridge

(Note the woman on the left for scale)

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Cambridge

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

I went to England in 1999 to see the total eclipse of the sun (it was cloudy). But while I was in London, my brother and I spent the day going up to Cambridge where we visited the University and I was thrilled to come upon the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics … one of the hangouts of Stephen Hawking.

We later walked over to the river Cam and I poled a punt (skiff? … ?) on the river. My brother was a little nervous with my poling … not having been with me during any of the hours I had spent poling my canoe. This was lots easier … not nearly as tippy. It was fun to pole under a bridge on the Cam.

Poling on the River Can
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Upstream and Downstream

Upstream

These photos were taken from the Graves Creek Bridge on the East Fork Quinault trail in the Olympic National Park. I thought the difference between the two was interesting … you just wouldn’t likely think the photos were taken the same spot. The difference between the two ‘sides’ is purely a result change in gradient … there isn’t any dam or blockage below this point on the creek.

Downstream

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Bridges: Open or Closed?

Bridge Opening For Navy Ship

One of the facts of life living on the north half of the Olympic Peninsula is that access to and from major population centers (think shopping and medical appointments) relies on crossing the Hood Canal bridge. In the case of Navy vessels (both submarines and support ships going to/from the Bangor Naval Base (think Trident Nuclear Submarines). Depending on the time of day, the delay can be easily close to an hour. And longer delays are possible during stormy weather, when the bridge is opened to minimize the strain of water being pushed against the span. Then the roadway is closed until the weather moderates.

But my question is: when do you call the bridge “open” and when do you call it “closed”? To me, when the bridge is open, the roadway is closed. But I’ve had conversations with people who say the bridge is closed … meaning that it is open for highway traffic … and other conversations where “the bridge is open”, meaning that it is open for highway traffic. Having grown up in Seattle, with its numerous draw bridges, I’m used to the perspective that when a bridge is open, it is open for boat traffic.

Are you mixed up yet?

Unexpected Delay
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