At Fort Worden State Park there is a small garden of rhododendrons. The first ones are in bloom in mid-March and they continue through the spring. It’s nice to be able to visit and see some signs that the more monochrome winter is actually being replaced by springtime colors.
During the recent stay at Kalaloch, we took a day hike on the Ira Spring Wetlands Loop Trail. Ira Spring was one of my photo idols growing up as a kid. He and his brother Bob were famous local photographers, and with Harvey Manning, put out a pile of hiking guide books: the 100 Hikes in Western Washington series. Ira was also one of the co-founders of the Washington Trails Association. So I was pleased to be able to hike this trail that was named in his honor. It is located at the beginning of the Bogachiel River trail … just before it enters the Olympic National Park. It is a wild, seldom visited rain forest valley.
I was spending some time at Kalaloch at the coast in the Olympic National Park. The weather was pretty good, we just had a few showers. Didn’t get a good sunset photo, but got this before the clouds closed in. Stay tuned for some additional posts from the trip …
The town center of Port Townsend is around the point of land coming into the water from the right. That is Point Hudson and just around the corner is one of the big marinas. In the distance is Marrowstone Island and Indian Island, while the buildings are mostly housing left from the days when Fort Worden was active. It’s now a state park and some of the housing is available for short term rental. It was also the location for filming some of “An Officer and A Gentleman”.
I liked the grass greening up as spring approached.
It’s still winter (we got snow on February 27th), but we are all looking forward to spring and the blooms of wild and domestic plants. (the snow smashed my crocus) But there’s still some reminders from last year’s summer blooms, like this remnant ocean spray that was catching some sunlight through a gap in the tree cover.