On the trail to Sol Duc Falls (see previous post), we had to walk across many little streams that were running down to the river. This was one that caught my eye. It was raining, which made the ferns shine … and the stream had water running in it (it dries up in the middle of summer). I’m not sure what has opened up the area around the stream. Mostly this area of the Olympic National Park is a dense stand of huge old trees.
Lake 22 (TwentyTwo) is located just west of Mt Pilchuck, west of Everett, WA. in the Central Cascade foothills. The area was part of one of the very first ecological studies, in the 1949 book Pilchuck, The Life of a Mountain by Harry Higman and Earl J. Larrison. (Working my way through college in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s, I mowed the lawn and did gardening at Harry Higmans’s widow’s house.) The book is a classic and I’m happy to have a first edition print of it in my library.
This is also the site of my very first backpack trip (August 1962) … and we ended up soaking wet. The image below shows the lake surface a few minutes later from the image above, when it began to pour on us … just a brief summer shower. This time we were prepared and didn’t end up soaked. There is no overnight camping permitted at the lake anymore due to excessive usage and to protect the environment around the lake.
Looking east across the Owens River valley to the White Mountains, just north of Lone Pine, CA. There isn’t much rainfall in this area, and when there is rain, it often falls in isolated showers like this one. It lasted just a few minutes, but provided some needed moisture to that particular location.
We had a trip to hike the Queets River trail (Olympic National Park) planned for several weeks. The summer had been dry and the river was low. That’s important since the first thing is to ford the river. Most of the year, the trail is inaccessible.
But of course, it is the rain forest … and so the day we arrived the river had just peaked at three times the “safe-to-ford” level. But the drive in was worth it… with mists in the forest, and elk crossing the road, and hardly anyone else around.
Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikon 24-85mm at 24mm ISO 640 1/160 sec f/6.3