These two images are from the Staircase area of Olympic National Park in autumn. I enjoy the autumn hikes when the weather is clear … there aren’t nearly so many people on the trails as in the summer and the yellow of the leaves makes a nice splash of color.
The photo above is Happy Lake … a seldom visited spot in the Olympic National Park. The Happy Lake Ridge Trail is seldom hiked, but it a wonderful loop hike, ending at Olympic Hot Springs. It’s a longer hike now … since the road is washed out 5 miles or so before the Olympic Hot Springs trailhead. Happy Lake was quite buggy … but mid-July tends to be that way. Notice the left over snow and the Avalance Lilies.
I’m going through images from different seasons, trying to fight off the seasonal winter blues of the Pacific Northwest. These were all from the same springtime hike up Mount Rose in the southeast Olympics. I know they will brighten up my days in a month or two … if I can hold on that long.
Hart Lake in LaCrosse Basin is another beautiful area in the Olympic National Park that is difficult to access. It is a couple days of hiking to get there … and, of course, another couple to get back out. With a day to enjoy the area, that makes a 5 day hike at a minimum. The remoteness means fewer people … a real bonus, as far as I’m concerned.
To illustrate the difficulty in access (besides the distance), below is an image I took of the fording of the Duckabush River (it’s lots bigger by the time it reaches it’s mouth). The water is icy cold and just below this area, drops over a falls.
While I have been posting a lot of shoreline images lately, I really prefer the high country in the Olympics. Of course, this time of year, they are totally snowed in. One must dream of summer … although even in August, there is still snow.
And, even if snow-free, this area isn’t easy to access. You need to hike at least 15 miles to get to the trailhead.
(Please note the hiker on the trail in the lower left)