Category: Rocks

Big Rock

Big Rock

One of the things I like about living in the Pacific Northwest are glacial erratics. These can sometimes be large boulders that seem to be spread around at random … which is exactly the case. During the last ice age the glaciers carried these big rocks (or little ones) sometimes for hundreds of miles … and then dropped them where they were when the ice melted. Sometimes they can be traced to their point of origin by the type of rock or chemical compostion. The fact that there were this big rocks spread around was one of the reasons I ended up with a degree in Geology.

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North Fork Skokomish Winter Hike

Staircase Rapids, North Fork Skokomish, Olympic National Park

In my last post I talked about a trip we took up the Staircase Rapids Trail along the North Fork Skokomish in Olympic National Park. This was a section of the rapids … where they are not quite so dramatic. But this spot gives a view up valley and the frost was covering the rocks along the bank (needs a close look in the photo). We hiked up to the bridge crossing the river and turned around and hiked back. The image below is taken from the middle of the bridge.

View from the middle of the Staircase Rapids Loop bridge.

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North Fork Skokomish Rapids and Loop Trail

N Fk Skokomish Rapids

The North Fork Skokomish valley has some of my favorite hikes. The starting point is at Staircase Ranger Station and Campground at the southeast corner of Olympic National Park and access is open year round … except when the snow has closed the road. But since the elevation is less than 1000 feet (305m), that isn’t too often. The rapids are striking enough that they have built a loop trail of about two miles starting from the ranger station and crossing the river on a very nice bridge about a mile up the river. The image below shows a section of that trail.

Staircase Rapids Loop Trail
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Trail Benches

Trail Benches

The trail up Mt Ellinor in the SE corner of the Olympic Mountains (outside of the National Park) is one of the most heavily used in the Olympics. It’s a reasonable hike up to a spectacular view. There are three trailheads … One at the bottom at Big Creek Campground (a 6 mile hike with lots of additional elevation gain), one at the “mid-point” (a 3.1 mile hike) and the upper trailhead (a 1.6 mile hike) — all mileages one way. Those choosing the upper trailhead to shorten the hike miss some wonderful forest, including this bench-rock location. The boulder covered with lichen and moss is worth spending time with … and the matching benches are a nice feature … although when you’re hiking by yourself, they seem excessive.

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The Kootenai River

The Kootenai River

This is the Kootenai River in Idaho from the Kootenai Falls Swinging Bridge. It’s just off of Highway 2 west of Libby, Montana. As you can tell from the small section of sky in the upper left, it was a cloudy day… but the trail that runs across the swinging bridge is a nice way to stretch out the legs after a day or two driving (we were going from Seattle to Whitefish … a couple long days of driving).

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