A wonderful hike runs along the Grand Ridge Trail from Deer Park towards Obstruction Point. There is some moderate elevation gain, but the trail starts at Deer Park which is in the subalpine zone, so there is no climb to “the high country”…. just a long dusty drive.
Spring covers a wide range of changes to the forests and lowlands of the Olympic National Park. The high country doesn’t start being snow-free until summer … spring in the high country means snow travel. Lower down, the rivers can be running quite low … if the snow isn’t melting higher in the valleys and it’s not raining. The image above is at under 1000 feet elevation and shows the river running fairly low after a couple days of cool dry weather.
The image below shows a group of backpackers that had been up to Big Timber Camp on the West Fork of the Dosewallips. Big Timber is at 2300 feet and they reported 5 feet of hard packed snow at that point. You need good insulation between you and the ground to sleep on snow …
The image at the bottom shows the view up to the high country and the remaining snow in the trees. The area shown has melted out more, since it is open to the south and the sun is starting to do its thawing out trick.
I liked the rayed sun through the viewfinder and was pleased with the capture being close to what I saw (except for some flaring that I hadn’t noticed. The 18 rays are a result of the lens iris being a rounded 9-blade diaphragm, but I’m not sure why it doubles the count. Maybe Wikipedia will know (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaphragm_(optics)) …
The dock in the foreground is the current Washington State Ferry terminal at Port Townsend (the other end of the route is Coupeville, Whidbey Island. In the distance is the north east corner of the Olympic Mountains.
This is the old ferry dock in downtown Port Townsend, Washington. In the early days of the town, the so-called “Mosquito Fleet” provided regular transportation around Puget Sound. Later, a scheduled ferry service was started and the current ferry provides service to Whidbey Island from a dock just a few blocks from this location.
I liked the Great Blue Heron on the top of the pilings in the upper photo … and in the far distance, Mt Rainier. The lower image shows just a hint of the Olympic Mountains … and a seagull standing on one leg.
This time of year we don’t get many sunsets in the Pacific Northwest due to the near constant cloud cover. When we do, we are treated with the sun setting over the NE corner of the Olympic Mountains. Always a treat.