The trillium above were not wild, but in a garden (Kubota Garden in Seattle). Wild varieties typically do not clump like this. But they sure are a nice display … and a wonderful sign that spring is here. Another sign of spring are blossoms on trees as below. I found these in Fort Worden State Park, but I haven’t been able to identify the species of tree. When I have visited in the summer, I don’t see any fruit.
As much as I enjoy the high country, this time of year there just isn’t much access available in the Olympics. So it’s the lowlands. There are plenty of good hikes that are (mostly) snow-free all year, with pleasant views and interesting features. This trail runs out of Dosewallips State Park on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. The Nurse Stump was amazing and the small creek provided a wonderful sound track.
I’m going through images from different seasons, trying to fight off the seasonal winter blues of the Pacific Northwest. These were all from the same springtime hike up Mount Rose in the southeast Olympics. I know they will brighten up my days in a month or two … if I can hold on that long.
One of the things I enjoy about winter in the Olympics is seeing all the moss on the trees being backlit by sunshine. Of course, being Western Washington (let alone rain forest type environment), there aren’t a lot of days in the late fall or winter when you can get a sunny day. This was shot with my Nikon F6 on Tri-X, so I don’t have a color version for you to compare.
But I really enjoy the backlit, glowing green moss outlining each limb of these big leaf maples.
See below for a look at the trail we were hiking.
The previous post referred to the vine maple as the source of the brightest reds in the lowland Olympics. Here’s a good example (above) as compared to big leaf maple and its yellows (below).
