Tag: Hiking

North Fork Skokomish Fire Before and After (5)


The Olympic National Park opened up the Staircase Rapids Loop Trail on July 8th for the first time since the fire in 2025 devastated the area. The valley of the North Fork Skokomish was one of my favorite locations and I went to take photos of the area on the 8th. Each set of photos shows the same location before and after. Some images aren’t exact matches … but I did as well as I could with the images I had. The Staircase Loop Trail leaves from the Staircase Ranger Station, runs 1 mile (1.6 KM), crosses the river (on a bridge that was protected from the fire) and returns back to the parking lot.

These images are from the Staircase Bridge … a concrete bridge that runs across the river to the ranger residences and the return trailhead of the Staircase Loop trail … (well, the return trailhead depending on which direction you choose to hike).

Upriver View from the Staircase Bridge Before
Upriver View from the Staircase Bridge After
Downriver View from the Staircase Bridge Before
Downriver View from the Staircase Bridge After

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Winter Walk

Winter Walk

I thought this was stunning. The family walking along the trail made this image special. I used a 300mm lens, which emphasized the mountains comparatively. It was taken at Nisqually Natural Wildlife Refuge prior to the name change and prior to the breaching of the dikes. So, unfortunately, the trail they are walking on is no longer accessible. Well, it is unfortunate for hikers/walkers, but much appreciated by the young salmon that use the newly recreated salt marsh habitat.

The Nisqually Natural Wildlife Refuge (now the Billy Frank, Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Center) is located 10 miles east of Olympia, Washington just off of I-5. The view is of the southern Olympic Mountains.

Still trying to get the kinks out of the WordPress software since I updated to a newer version. Ugh.

Reminder:

I have a book available on the Kindle site. It is a memoir titled 60 Years of Hiking in the Olympics. It has over 100 photographs and covers more than 100 different hikes and backpacks. I have it priced to share at $2.99 (US).

Note: this book is a memior of my hikes, not a guide book. It reflects my hiking style: wandering around and enjoying the trails and observing the natural world.

Here’s the link:

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Lupine Along the Trail

Lupine Along the Trail

Walking through fields of lupine up in the high country is one of my favorite things. It’s especially nice when it’s not wet and overgrowing the trail. Then your boots get wet … and usually your socks. It can be uncomfortable the rest of the day. Fortunately, this was dry and away from the trail. Another close up “panorama”.

Most of the white flowers here are American Bistort with one or two strays mixed in.

This was taken on the High Divide trail in Olympic National Park.

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Panoramas

Heart Lake, Olympic National Park

I have been working for the last several months at putting together my hiking memiors. The title is “60 Years of Hiking in the Olympics”, and yes, that is how long I’ve been doing hikes and backpacks into the park. Since I always had a camera with me on those trips, I have spent hours going through all the images and selecting ones to include. One of the surprises was when I realized that there were several that I had taken with the idea that I might “paste them together” to create panoramas. That was difficult to do back in the film days … digital processing eventually made it as easy as pushing a button. These images are ones that I had never taken the time to paste together … so were new surprises for me. The one above is of Heart Lake on the approach to the High Divide. Below is the view of the Upper Hoh River valley from the middle of the High Divide, looking southeast. Mt Olympus is just to the right of the image … I had created the panorama of that one earlier, but missed this combination. (These were taken with an early digital camera … but before there was easy to use software to stitch them together.)

And when (if) the book is available as an eBook for easy download, I will provide the link.

The Upper Hoh River Valley, Olympic National Park
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Raven Visit

View south and west from Hurricane Hill Picnic area

We took a break while on our walk up at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park on May 3rd. While we were enjoying a snack and the view, we had this raven come in to visit (and/or beg for some of our snacks). Its beak is open, but it wasn’t squawking. I think it was trying to cool off … it was a record warm day (for May 3rd) and I don’t think it was used to the temperature.

Raven with the Elwha River valley in the distance
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