This is a shot from a viewpoint that overlooks Lake Cushman and has looks up the valley (which runs around to the right) of the North Fork Skokomish River. One of my favorite hiking locations. I was on my way back from a hike up Mt Rose, which is the hillside on the right of the image. It’s a steep trail and a good workout. I didn’t get anywhere near the top, since it was New Year’s Eve Day and therefore not many hours of daylight … and I got a late start.
Lake Cushman is the reservoir behind the dam on the North Fork Skokomish. There was a natural lake there in the old days, but much smaller. The North Fork Skok is one of my favorite hikes … Staircase Campground is very popular and sits just inside the boundary of the Olympic National Park. The mountain just to the right of center is Mt Rose. The snowy peak behind it is Copper Mountain. The early prospectors looked for copper but didn’t find any worth working. The Olympics are pretty much free of any valuable mineral deposits (mostly marine sedimentary rocks or marine basalt) … which is one reason they remained pristine until they could be protected by the national park system. Below is a close up of Mt Rose.
Mt Rose has a trail to the summit. A steep trail, but at least you get some view from the top. I used it for years as a training hike, year round. In the winter, I would snowshoe to the top, going pretty directly up, since the trail was covered. I would then follow the ridgeline that runs to the right (in this view) and then drop back down to catch the trail at about the 3400 ft level.
