We took a trip up to Mt Walker to enjoy the wild rhododendrons. Mt Walker has quite a dense collection and we caught them in full bloom and it’s a very good year. When I say ‘collection’ I don’t mean to imply that they aren’t wild.
The native rhododendron is the official Washington State Flower.
These were taken on a hike in the Olympic National Forest … and not recently. This is the high country near Lake Lucerne in the Upper Duckabush and along the O’Neil Pass Trail. This area is usually covered in snow until mid-July or so. I would really like to get back to this location, but it’s at least a long 2 day backpack … which means the pack starts weighing enough that I have second thoughts.
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.
These two images were taken just a few minutes apart … the top photo was a bouquet that is in a vase mounted on a fence post, while the bottom image is just a little ways up the Larry Scott Trail. They are so different from each other, but both so beautiful.
These were all taken in the Graves Creek campground in the Olympic National Forest, at the end of the South Shore Quinault Road, where the East Fork Quinault trail begins. There was still a little bit of snow here and there along the road, but it was definitely starting to look like spring. It’s pretty amazing how the moss covers so much of the trees and ground… but that’s what happens in a rain forest.
