These two images show first snowfalls of the year in the North Fork Skokomish valley. The top image was taken from the bridge over the river just below the Staircase entrance to Olympic National Park. The lower image was taken from the bridge over the river to the ranger residential area and the Staircase Loop trail.
This was an early winter storm that came in while I was out walking the valley. The top of the ridge with the lowest snow is just over 3000 feet (about 915 meters). The snow stuck around on the high ground, but it was gone the next day on the trees. Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington are the southeastern most corner of the Olympic Mountains (not in Olympic National Park). There is a low point between the two summits that is obscured with clouds in this image … Ellinor is lower by several hundred feet and is on the left.
The trail up Mt Ellinor in the SE corner of the Olympic Mountains (outside of the National Park) is one of the most heavily used in the Olympics. It’s a reasonable hike up to a spectacular view. There are three trailheads … One at the bottom at Big Creek Campground (a 6 mile hike with lots of additional elevation gain), one at the “mid-point” (a 3.1 mile hike) and the upper trailhead (a 1.6 mile hike) — all mileages one way. Those choosing the upper trailhead to shorten the hike miss some wonderful forest, including this bench-rock location. The boulder covered with lichen and moss is worth spending time with … and the matching benches are a nice feature … although when you’re hiking by yourself, they seem excessive.
The northeast corner of the Olympic Mountains make a wonderful backdrop for the marina and the Port Townsend Paper Mill.
We took a trip up to Mt Walker to enjoy the wild rhododendrons. Mt Walker has quite a dense collection and we caught them in full bloom and it’s a very good year. When I say ‘collection’ I don’t mean to imply that they aren’t wild.
The native rhododendron is the official Washington State Flower.
