The summit of Blue Mountain is a short walk above the Deer Park Campground in the Olympic National Park. Many locals will regularly visit to enjoy the spectacular sunsets … the Strait of Juan De Fuca is below to the right of this image.
The Atmospheric Effect is where the mist or haze in the air enhances the apparent depth of the subject. In this case, I took the photo looking west from the summit of Blue Mountain above Deer Park Campground in the Olympic National Park. This is the view looking into the sun. Below is the view looking south — 90 degrees from the photo above. And with a different lens, of course. But notice the lack of the atmospheric effect.
This photo was taken on my way up Mt Ellinor (see the previous post) on a day when the weather was deteriorating rapidly. It was a good hike anyway. The funny thing that happened was that when I returned to my car, I found that someone had decorated it with a bagel stuck on my radio antenna. (see below)
And no, I didn’t eat the bagel. (I was a little surprised that it wasn’t attacked by crows or ravens.
This is the view north from Constance Pass, the divide between the Dosewallips valley and (above) the Dungeness River Valley. You can just make out some of Vancouver Island around the Victoria area across the Strait of Juan De Fuca. This area is mostly in the Buckhorn Wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest, not in the Olympic National Park.
Along the ridge near Constance Pass are a couple of rock shelters (shown below). I haven’t been able to track down their origin. However, they must have provided a welcome windbreak during stormy weather.
Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington are the two southernmost prominent peaks in the Olympics visible on the Seattle western skyline. Mt Ellinor was named after Ellinor Fauntleroy, a member of a pioneering Seattle settler family. Ellinor has a trail to the summit and is one of the most heavily hiked trails in the Olympics. The view is spectacular. Mt Washington has some technical climbing in order to access the summit.
Below is a closer view of Ellinor.
