These views are from the North Fork Skokomish river valley … which is located in the Southeast corner of the Olympic National Park.
Mists in the Mountains and Forests
Flapjack Lakes Trail Sign
This is one of my favorite trail signs. It is located at 3.7 miles along the North Fork Skokomish trail … and makes a nice turn around point for a day hike . (The “Tree Huggers” post from a couple days past was taken along this section of trail.) Several times I have been up to Flapjack Lakes (named for their shapes) and once or twice to Gladys Divide and once or twice to Black and White Lakes. Usually if I continue hiking past this point I stay on the North Fork Skokomish Trail. (this is all in the Olympic National Park … and camping at Flapjack Lakes is by reservation only due to the heavy use)
I laughed… (not at the elk)
So I was playing around with various image processing software to see what I could do to improve some of my older images… (this one is from 2017). I had just taken some photos of fall foliage and noticed some elk just down stream from my position, crossing the North Fork Skokomish (just a half mile or so up from Staircase Campground in the Olympic National Park.
I had looked at this image dozens of times over the years, but this was the first time I had ever noticed that there was someone on the other side of the river, watching the elk from behind a log. I can’t tell if they had a camera or not, but I image that there presence was why the elk were crossing. (see below)
Forest Floor
I take a lot of shots of the sky … cloud formations, etc. But I also like to take photos of what’s under my feet (or at least near my feet … wouldn’t want to give the impression that I walk all over flowers and other plants). These are a couple of forest floor photos that I like. Both are from the North Fork Skokomish river valley in the Olympic National Park.
Staircase Rapids
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.