The previous post showed the smoke from the Bear Gulch fire being blown into the Hurricane Ridge area of the Olympic National Park where we were hiking. Before the smoke got dense, there were some interesting shots available showing atmospheric effects from lesser amounts of smoke. The image above is looking east across the Elwha River valley to the Bailey Range and just the very top of Mt Olympus. Below is from the same time/location but looking south down the valley of the Elwha.
Recently we went for a hike up in the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park, which is at the opposite end of the park from the Bear Gulch fire area. The wind was blowing from the south, however and over the course of the couple hours we hiked the smoke blew in up the Elwha Valley (image center). On the return trip, I was stunned at how the smoke had built up (we had been hiking in the woods where there was no view to the south). Below is a photo from the same location, about an hour and a half later than the top image.
We took a recent trip up to Hurricane Ridge (Olympic National Park) and were going to snowshoe, but a check on conditions showed there to be not enough snow for snowshoeing. The image above is at over 5200′ (1585m) and you can see all the exposed grasses. There’s still plenty of time to build up some snowpack to provide water for the summer, but it does concern folks. The valley running into the distance in the middle of the image is the Elwha River.
The image below is from where we turned around and walked back to the parking lot. It is looking west of the image above.
From the top of Hurricane Hill, you can see just the top of Mt Olympus “peaking” above the Bailey Range (which runs down through the middle of Olympic National Park. I thought the dry grasses in the foreground made an interesting contrast.
These two shots were taken while I was on the hike up Hurricane Hill in the Olympic National Park (described some in my last post). We stopped at a bench to sit and eat a snack lunch. I thought that they showed the difference in the environment in a relatively short distance. Looking west you look across the Elwha River valley to the Bailey Range, on the far side of which is the Hoh Rainforest. Meanwhile, below is the area just below the summit of Hurricane Hill and a look at one of the drier areas of the Olympics (near the western boundary of the rain shadow).
