Irely Lake is close to the North Fork Quinault Road in the Olympic National Park. Just a short hike and open year round. This image was taken in winter and the recent rains had filled it up to overflowing.
There were plenty of clouds hanging on the ridges. One of my favorite photo subjects.
This reflection caught my eye while kayaking Lake St Clair outside of Olympia, WA. It was pretty bland in color with everything shades of brown and tan. Converted to B&W, though, it became an Op-Art kind of photo.
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.
The photo above is Happy Lake … a seldom visited spot in the Olympic National Park. The Happy Lake Ridge Trail is seldom hiked, but it a wonderful loop hike, ending at Olympic Hot Springs. It’s a longer hike now … since the road is washed out 5 miles or so before the Olympic Hot Springs trailhead. Happy Lake was quite buggy … but mid-July tends to be that way. Notice the left over snow and the Avalance Lilies.
Hart Lake in LaCrosse Basin is another beautiful area in the Olympic National Park that is difficult to access. It is a couple days of hiking to get there … and, of course, another couple to get back out. With a day to enjoy the area, that makes a 5 day hike at a minimum. The remoteness means fewer people … a real bonus, as far as I’m concerned.
To illustrate the difficulty in access (besides the distance), below is an image I took of the fording of the Duckabush River (it’s lots bigger by the time it reaches it’s mouth). The water is icy cold and just below this area, drops over a falls.
