I hope that during the holiday season you have time to spend with friends and family and that you do something together … like go for a walk, have a meal, or just sit and talk. I don’t know these people … I just really liked the shadows they threw towards me.
The Dosewallips Road access to Olympic National Park has been washed out for close to 20 years now … they are still planning on re-routing the access road into the Dosewallips Flats area. Sometime. In the meantime, it’s a great hike, early spring through late autumn. This was October 7th. We hiked in 2.5 miles and back out. The dog was tired. Dog Tired.
Still haven’t heard any late news about the future of the Dosewallips Road. This is in the Olympic National Forest and there is a washout blocking the road about 1/2 mile from this location. This road provides the only road access to the Dosewallips Campground. It’s a 6 mile hike in to the camp at this point … but the campground and surroundings are in Olympic National Park. The different jurisdictions make the problem solving way more difficult. The Forest doesn’t want to pay for the road repair (which has to be done in such a way as to have no negative impact on the river and its salmon habitat) … and any bypass would be partially on private land … another complication.
This is one of the trails (and maintenance roads) at Fort Worden State Park here in Port Townsend. It is only a mile or two from my house, but the weather changes rapidly across the area – here on a peninsula sticking out into salt water (Admiralty Inlet on Puget Sound). At home there was still an inch of icy snow on the street (a cul-de-sac … so not much traffic).
The autumn brings a quieter experience to many trails and parks. The summer crowds are gone and one can find relative solitude even in parks that are heavily used.
