I played hooky from work one day in July 2003 and climbed up South Ingals peak. It has been one of my favorite areas in the Central Cascades … up the North Fork of the Teanaway River. That is Mt Rainier in the distance. I really liked the silver wood snag. This spot hasn’t seen any forest fires (yet), but the access road was the east perimeter of a large fire this summer. Below are some anemones growing in the rocks near where I took the upper photo.
The previous post showed the smoke from the Bear Gulch fire being blown into the Hurricane Ridge area of the Olympic National Park where we were hiking. Before the smoke got dense, there were some interesting shots available showing atmospheric effects from lesser amounts of smoke. The image above is looking east across the Elwha River valley to the Bailey Range and just the very top of Mt Olympus. Below is from the same time/location but looking south down the valley of the Elwha.
Recently we went for a hike up in the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park, which is at the opposite end of the park from the Bear Gulch fire area. The wind was blowing from the south, however and over the course of the couple hours we hiked the smoke blew in up the Elwha Valley (image center). On the return trip, I was stunned at how the smoke had built up (we had been hiking in the woods where there was no view to the south). Below is a photo from the same location, about an hour and a half later than the top image.
This is the Duckabush Valley in the Olympic National Park. This is looking east down-valley out to the Puget Sound basin. The mist is typical for a morning … when it’s not even more cloudy, or just downright raining. I believe the peak in the distance (the low spot) is Mt Jupiter … which is one of the peaks of Seattle’s western horizon. The image is an older one before digital cameras and is a low resolution scan. I find that the softer image has an appeal … even if there is significant loss of definition.
Towards the upper end of the Enchanted Valley Trail up the East Fork Quinault Trail in the Olympic National Park is Anderson Pass. Across the pass is the West Fork Dosewallips valley and trail. This is a heavily used combination allowing a fairly easy crossing of the park. Mt Anderson it the central peak in the image here with Anderson Glacier. This view is from a spot still a couple miles below Anderson Pass.