Mt Steel is just south of O’Neil Pass. Lt. O’Neil established the first route across the south Olympics from Hoodsport to the Quinault in the 1890’s. The pass separates the Duckabush Valley from the East Fork Quinault Valley (The Enchanted Valley). It’s a beautiful remote area of the Olympic National Park. The image below is the same view but in a portrait mode.
This is the Kestner Homestead in the Olympic National Park. The homestead is vacant … the National Park allowed the Kestner’s to remain as long as they wanted … but they were unable to sell the property to anyone except the National Park. In the front yard was this John Deere No. 1.
This lovely log cabin is somewhere in Utah, I think. My notes are incomplete at this point. I remember that there were stories about it being associated with the Hole-in-the-Wall gang (think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) … but that was in Wyoming, and not close to our route. It had a wonderful meadow area too (see below). I’m also impressed with the number of windows. Makes me think it more likely to be a 20th century construction job, though.
I have been posting a lot of views of the Olympic National Park and the big trees. I spend a lot of time there, mostly since it’s close to home. But occasionally I do travel to other areas and experience nature in other environments. The image above shows some open pine woods and grasslands down in California in Inyo National Forest. At least that’s my memory … my notes are sketchy on that trip.
On the other hand, the image below is back up in Washington, but down along the Nisqually River Delta area in a section of the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge that is no long accessible. What a difference in woods.
From the Deer Park area, you can look over to the Hurricane RIdge area (or take a nice long ridge walk). If you click on the image to enlarge your view, you can see the road cut that runs from Port Angeles up to the ridge.