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.
I recently did a day drive up to Hurricane Ridge In Olympic National Park. The road runs up into the alpine area, which makes it nice if you are carrying a bunch of camera equipment. The top photo is looking south into the center of the park and the Elwha River valley. The end of June is a good time for wild flowers, since most of the snow has left. I was able to find a trail where I was by myself and not packed in with all the other folks (they were mostly hiking trails near the main parking lot or Hurricane Hill).
The second image is Olympic Onion, which is described as being rare. I’ve seen it a few times and it smells strongly of onion. Since I’ve never seen it in huge masses, I’ve never harvested any for enhancing the flavor of my backpacking food. (although it sure would help)
Third image is larkspur … which competes with lupine in the blue/purple assemblage.
