These are the Staircase Rapids on the North Fork Skokomish River just a little above the Staircase Ranger Station in the southeast corner of the Olympic National Park. It was a dark wet day and I thought about brightening up the image … but in this case I decided that it reflected the mood of the day as it was.
The top photo shows running water with a slow shutter speed and the bottom photo shows a fast shutter speed. The lower photo is more recent and the shutter speed (1/125th sec) was recorded in the EXIF data (info the camera saves for each photo … things like camera, shutter speed, lens info, aperture, ISO setting, etc). The top photo was taken years ago with my first digital camera (an Olympus E-10) and something has happened over the years and the EXIF data on this image went away. I assume it was between 1/2 and 3 seconds.
I find it interesting how various trees in an area will have such varied timing of color display and leaf drop. Probably some genetic variation …
I thought this flash of red from a small vine maple was a nice counterpoint to the greens and greys.
There is a nice rocky knoll about 1.5 miles in from the trailhead of the North Fork Skokomish river trail (Olympic National Park). I have hiked the trail around a hundred times, I suppose, in all kinds of weather, in all times of the year. My favorite spot for lunch is this knoll … although the quality of the view is now being reduced due to the growth of trees in the previous slide area. This was part of the area of the Beaver Fire in the late 1980’s (you can still see some of the resulting snags) … and the slides the following winter/spring wiped out additional areas that didn’t burn. The slides did create some views that are now going away … it’s worth it, but the views will be missed.
