Hart Lake

Hart Lake with Mt Steel in the background

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.

Fording the Duckabush RIver

My Oldest Image

Mt St Helens from Spirit Lake, June 1961

I don’t have a lot of images from when I was a kid … this is one of the few. I went with my Aunt Maisie and Uncle Dave up to Spirit Lake at Mt St Helens in June 1961. The top section of St Helens is now AWOL and Spirit Lake is totally different. The boat trip was a charter boat we took for a ride around the lake. The funny part of the camping trip was our arrival late at night on Friday. We set up camp in the dark, where we could find an open spot. We woke to find we had pitched our tent in the parking lot.

By the way, my Uncle Dave was who got me seriously interested in photography. This was about the time that he set me up with a darkroom and gave me his old Argus C-3 35mm rangefinder. However, this image was taken with a Kodak Brownie (a Hawkeye, I believe).

Goose Lake

Goose Lake

Goose Lake is in the very northeast corner of California, just south of Lakeview, Oregon. There isn’t much water these days … although in the winter/early spring there can be a very shallow covering (some years). You can see a small patch of water in the far right corner.

Lake 22

Lake 22 in winter

Lake 22 in east of the city of Everett, along the Mountain Loop Highway. It is one of the most heavily hiked trails in the Cascades. It is also the location of my first backpack trip back in the early ’60’s. I remember having to carry out the wet canvas tarp we used for a shelter … it rained and the little hollow we had set up camp in filled with water. It was only 2 miles or so downhill, but my pack weighed over 70 lbs when I got home. But that was long ago and in the summer. Nowadays, there is no overnight camping allowed. And they have added a boardwalk around most of the lake to protect the meadow areas.

Ridge above Lake 22

(More found images from my Archive Catalog)

Hart Lake Sunrise

Hart Lake Sunrise

(more found images from my archive file) Hart Lake is in the upper Duckabush Valley, and is much less visited than the Heart Lake in the upper Sol Duc. Hart Lake takes over 20 miles of hiking to get there, so there are many fewer visitors. We were camped near the lake and when the sun was coming up, the clouds in the valley moved up … before burning off for the day. It was spectacular.

Hart Lake Panorama

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