Category: Valley

Mt Olympus from the High Divide

Mt Olympus from the High Divide at Sunset

I took this image a few years back while hiking around the High Divide, camping in a spot just off the trail. There wasn’t much water around (1/2 mile + away), but the view made up for it. The High Divide is the most popular backpack in the Olympic National Park … these days you need to make a reservation months in advance … and even then good luck getting one of the limited number.

Below is a view south from the High Divide trail about a mile or so from the camp above. Mt Olympus is the snowy peak on the left of center, Mt Tom is the snow peak just right of center. The Hoh River valley is between the trail and those peaks.

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Mountain Views

Mountain View I

These images were taken looking south and east from the Slab Creek trail that runs from Deer Park to Slab Camp on the Grey Wolf River. The area is in the Olympic National Park, but not all the valleys are fully protected … some may include sections of the Buckhorn Wilderness Area.

Mountain View II
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Hurricane Ridge Flowers (2)

Paintbrush

Another set of wildflower photos from my trip to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. I’m very fortunate to live just over an hour and a half from the summit … so it’s easy to access on short notice. The top photo is one of the more common wildflowers in the alpine areas of the ONP … paintbrush (often referred to as “Indian Paintbrush”). The second image is a patch of Vanilla Leaf that was along the trail. It’s common at all elevations, but this was a real nice patch and in full bloom. The third image shows one of the ‘vertical meadows’ along the trail … this one full of blooming American Bistort.

Vanilla Leaf
Meadow of American Bistort
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Hurricane Ridge Wildflowers

Looking South

I recently did a day drive up to Hurricane Ridge In Olympic National Park. The road runs up into the alpine area, which makes it nice if you are carrying a bunch of camera equipment. The top photo is looking south into the center of the park and the Elwha River valley. The end of June is a good time for wild flowers, since most of the snow has left. I was able to find a trail where I was by myself and not packed in with all the other folks (they were mostly hiking trails near the main parking lot or Hurricane Hill).

The second image is Olympic Onion, which is described as being rare. I’ve seen it a few times and it smells strongly of onion. Since I’ve never seen it in huge masses, I’ve never harvested any for enhancing the flavor of my backpacking food. (although it sure would help)

Third image is larkspur … which competes with lupine in the blue/purple assemblage.

Olympic Onion
Larkspur

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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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