Category: Olympic Mountains

Smoke Comin’ In

Smoke in the Distance

Recently we went for a hike up in the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park, which is at the opposite end of the park from the Bear Gulch fire area. The wind was blowing from the south, however and over the course of the couple hours we hiked the smoke blew in up the Elwha Valley (image center). On the return trip, I was stunned at how the smoke had built up (we had been hiking in the woods where there was no view to the south). Below is a photo from the same location, about an hour and a half later than the top image.

Smoke Close Enough to Smell

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We Were Down There. We Were Up There.

We Were Down There.

Boulder Lake is in the Elwha River drainage of the Olympic National Park. We climbed up Boulder Peak (except for the last dozen feet or so that were blocked by a 6 foot wall of snow) and enjoyed the calm, sunny weather and the view back down to our camp … in the trees just to the right of the bare spot on the upper left corner of the lake. The photo below is looking back to where we were.

We Were Up There.
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Mountain Meadow

Mountain Meadow

The mountain across the valley (which is the Duckabush) is Mt Steel. The small stream runs down into LaCrosse Basin … this is all in Olympic National Park. It’s a very remote area … 20 miles or so away from any trailhead … which helps cut down on the number of boots smashing the flowers down. We were very careful to step on rocky areas as we made our way across the meadow.

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Mt Baldy

Mt Baldy

This photo was taken from the Slab Camp trail out of Deer Park. The trail is one of my favorites, since the trailhead starts up in the subalpine area … one of two locations where you can access the high country in the Olympic National Park by road. The other road goes to Hurricane Ridge and is paved … and has many more visitors. I prefer Deer Park due to the fewer visitors … a result of the 8 miles of narrow, winding, steep dusty/muddy road.

The valley below is the middle section of the Gray Wolf River.

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View of Anderson Glacier

View of Anderson Glacier

Towards the upper end of the Enchanted Valley Trail up the East Fork Quinault Trail in the Olympic National Park is Anderson Pass. Across the pass is the West Fork Dosewallips valley and trail. This is a heavily used combination allowing a fairly easy crossing of the park. Mt Anderson it the central peak in the image here with Anderson Glacier. This view is from a spot still a couple miles below Anderson Pass.

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