Category: Panorama

Mt Ellinor

Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington Complex

Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington provide the south end of the view of the Olympics from the Seattle area. There is a trail that runs to the top of Ellinor, while Mt Washington is an ‘easy’ more technical climb. The stunning views from the summit of Ellinor provide an attraction that draws thousands of hikers each summer. (Hint: avoid summer weekends. Don’t expect solitude.) There are several different trailheads, letting the hiker choose the length and strenuousness of the hike. A dusty gravel logging road provides access to the higher trailheads. The view from the top of Ellinor includes a view of Lake Cushman (below).

Lake Cushman and the Ellinor/Washington complex.

From the summit of Elinor, you can see Mt Washington and the Puget Sound basin, including Mt Baker (on the far left skyline, below) and Mt Rainier.

Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington Ridge

Turning the other direction you have a stunning view of the southern and central Olympics (below).

View to the Northwest from the summit of Mt Ellinor

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Constance Pass Views

Constance Pass View 1

These images were all taken within a few minutes of each other from Constance Pass in the Olympics. (outside of the Olympic National Park … in the Buckhorn Wilderness) The one above is looking northeast and shows the west side of Mt Constance (on the right). Constance is the tallest peak you can see from Seattle’s view to the west.

This hike used to be a long one day hike from the Dosewallips trailhead … but the road being washed out now for 20 years or so has added an additional 6+ miles each way to the distance. The valley to the left of the image above is the upper Dungeness.

Constance Pass View 2

The view in the second image (above) is looking southwards … across the valley of the Dosewallips. The image below shows the view looking west towards Mt Mystery and into the Olympic National Park.

Constance Pass VIew 3

These were taken years ago, but I just found them and assembled them into panoramas. I didn’t have a lot of experience with panoramas at that time and there was no easy software fix to assemble them. That is the reason why the images are not ‘taller’. They were a little crooked … and to crop them to keep from having lots of empty space meant that they were wide and short.

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Holga Panoramas

Holga Panorama 1

The Holga cameras are a fun diversion. They are inexpensive to purchase, shoot 120 film and have a single lens similar to the Kodak Brownies of old. Since the lens has just one element, you get a very soft focus. The panorama version of the Holgas uses two frames of the 120 film … so you get 6 shots per roll. Developing is where things start costing money … well, after the $10 per roll of film, that is. There is an extra charge for processing the panoramas … so it you get high res scans, the cost comes in about $40 per roll for the processing … which brings the total to close to $10 per shot. Almost enough to make me want to start processing the film myself. Almost.

The above view is of the lighthouse at Point Wilson on Fort Worden from the dock of the Marine Science Center. Below is the view in the opposite direction showing the driftwood that has accumulated along the beach.

Holga Panorama 2
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High in the Olympics

High in the Olympics

While I have been posting a lot of shoreline images lately, I really prefer the high country in the Olympics. Of course, this time of year, they are totally snowed in. One must dream of summer … although even in August, there is still snow.

And, even if snow-free, this area isn’t easy to access. You need to hike at least 15 miles to get to the trailhead.

(Please note the hiker on the trail in the lower left)

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A Surprise Panorama

View from Happy Lake Ridge Trail

I was going through and organizing photos from the film days and found that there were a couple of photos that I had taken that could be combined into panoramas. This one was from a hike along Happy Lake Ridge in the Olympic National Park. The view is across the Elwha River valley over to Hurricane Ridge.

The Happy Lake Ridge trail is seldom hiked … even less since the Elwha Road washed out adding miles to access the trailhead. It is a nice loop trail, the upper end dropping down to Boulder Lake and then out through the Boulder Creek Trail and the (undeveloped) Olympic Hot Springs. With the wash out of the road, there are several miles of doubling back to get to the parking lot… but it is still mostly a loop.

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