These were taken from the boat launch and campground area of Fort Flagler State Park on the north end of Marrowstone Island. The top photo shows the northeast corner of the Olympic Mountains including Mt Constance (the tallest pointy one) … the more rounded summit that looks higher, but is only closer, is Mt Townsend. In the foreground distance is a crane loading (or unloading) munitions from a Navy ship at the Naval Magazine on Indian Island. Below shows the northeast Olympics running west towards Port Angeles. The water in both images is the mouth of Kilisut Harbor off of Port Townsend Bay.
This shot is taken from the upper trailhead to Mt Ellinor in the SE corner of the Olympic Mountains (but outside of the National Park). Notice the ‘crepuscular’ rays that coming down from the upper clouds. I hadn’t seen such very often.
Clouds: From Below
This image is taken up the valley of the North Fork Skokomish not too far from where the upper image was taken. Although from several thousand feet lower and on a different day.
Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington provide the south end of the view of the Olympics from the Seattle area. There is a trail that runs to the top of Ellinor, while Mt Washington is an ‘easy’ more technical climb. The stunning views from the summit of Ellinor provide an attraction that draws thousands of hikers each summer. (Hint: avoid summer weekends. Don’t expect solitude.) There are several different trailheads, letting the hiker choose the length and strenuousness of the hike. A dusty gravel logging road provides access to the higher trailheads. The view from the top of Ellinor includes a view of Lake Cushman (below).
Lake Cushman and the Ellinor/Washington complex.
From the summit of Elinor, you can see Mt Washington and the Puget Sound basin, including Mt Baker (on the far left skyline, below) and Mt Rainier.
Mt Ellinor – Mt Washington Ridge
Turning the other direction you have a stunning view of the southern and central Olympics (below).
View to the Northwest from the summit of Mt Ellinor
The Nisqually Delta is outside of Olympia, WA and is home of the Nisqually – Billy Frank, Jr. National Wildlife Reserve. It had been diked, drained and converted to farmland back 100 years ago or so, but the dike was intentionally breached and the interior is now salt marsh and provides home to young salmon. They built a wonderful walkway that runs most of a mile out for viewing birds and other critters. I took this image across to Luhr Beach (the buildings on the water) and the boat ramp. I didn’t notice the mountains visible in the cloud gaps until recently. They are the southeast corner of the Olympic Mountains from about Mount Ellinor to The Brothers.
These images were all taken within a few minutes of each other from Constance Pass in the Olympics. (outside of the Olympic National Park … in the Buckhorn Wilderness) The one above is looking northeast and shows the west side of Mt Constance (on the right). Constance is the tallest peak you can see from Seattle’s view to the west.
This hike used to be a long one day hike from the Dosewallips trailhead … but the road being washed out now for 20 years or so has added an additional 6+ miles each way to the distance. The valley to the left of the image above is the upper Dungeness.
Constance Pass View 2
The view in the second image (above) is looking southwards … across the valley of the Dosewallips. The image below shows the view looking west towards Mt Mystery and into the Olympic National Park.
Constance Pass VIew 3
These were taken years ago, but I just found them and assembled them into panoramas. I didn’t have a lot of experience with panoramas at that time and there was no easy software fix to assemble them. That is the reason why the images are not ‘taller’. They were a little crooked … and to crop them to keep from having lots of empty space meant that they were wide and short.
