While many crepuscular rays show the rays coming up from the horizon, you can often see examples of rays coming down through holes in cloud cover. Especially with the panoramic image at the bottom, clicking on it to get an expanded view is quite helpful. All images are from in or around Olympia, Washington. The top and bottom images are from the same day … around midday in late December.
A quarter mile walk up an abandoned road takes you to the summit of Blue Mountain and a panorama of spectacular views. This is the view to the east, showing Mt Baker in the distance and Admiralty inlet in the middle of the image … this is where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets Puget Sound (also known as the Salish Sea). What looks like an island in the right middle foreground is actually the north end of the Quimper Peninsula … location of my home town Port Townsend.
Note: while researching the course of the lower Gray Wolf River, I noticed that Green Mountain is west of Deer Park and the road above Deer Park climbs Blue Mountain. My mistake … I have called it Green Mt for years. Oops.
Mt Walker is about 30 miles SSW of Port Townsend, Washington and while it’s in the Olympic National Forest, it is not in Olympic National Park. There’s a road all the way up to the summit, which is very nice, since the trail is steep: my lungs would complain on the way up and my knees would complain on way down. One of the nice things about Mt Walker is that this time of year there are wild rhododendrons all up and down the mountain. The blooming season at the bottom is pretty much over when the blooming is just beginning up above. The photo is from the south summit viewpoint … the north summit viewpoint looks out over the NW corner of the Olympic Peninsula, including Pt Townsend. The mountain in the distance is Mt Rainier; the nearest water is Hood Canal and there is some of Puget Sound in the distance.
Point Wilson is located in Port Townsend within the boundaries of Fort Worden State Park and sits on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets Puget Sound, an area also known as Admiralty Inlet. The buildings are in need of repair … badly needed paint and the repair of other damage due to years in the weather. Below is a shot just a few feet away, on the beach, showing a lean-to that has also fallen into disrepair. No one is collecting money for the repair of the lean-to.
These shots were taken with my Pentax 643N using Portra 400 film.
This is a view of Woodard Bay, an inlet off of Henderson Inlet (an inlet of Puget Sound) northeast of Olympia. If you look closely (clicking on the image to expand it will help here), you can see the bridge where Woodard Bay Road crosses the inlet. This is high tide. When the tide is out, there isn’t anything except mud from bank to bank … except for the little bit of water from Woodard Creek.
Below is a view of the inside of the canoe, showing the paddle and baskets of oysters and blueberries, and a kneeling mat.
