Wild Rhododendron on Mt Walker in the Olympic National Forest.
Rhododendron Bloom
Rhodies on Mt Walker
Mt Walker is about 30 miles SSW of Port Townsend, Washington and while it’s in the Olympic National Forest, it is not in Olympic National Park. There’s a road all the way up to the summit, which is very nice, since the trail is steep: my lungs would complain on the way up and my knees would complain on way down. One of the nice things about Mt Walker is that this time of year there are wild rhododendrons all up and down the mountain. The blooming season at the bottom is pretty much over when the blooming is just beginning up above. The photo is from the south summit viewpoint … the north summit viewpoint looks out over the NW corner of the Olympic Peninsula, including Pt Townsend. The mountain in the distance is Mt Rainier; the nearest water is Hood Canal and there is some of Puget Sound in the distance.
Rhody Blooms
May is a wonderful month for rhododendron blooms. Different varieties are blooming most of the year, but it seems like May is peak for a great number. The image below is a closer view of the bloom on the right above.
Trail Views (Color and Black & White)
Just looking through my old hiking images and found a couple of shots that I took while taking a water break. The top one shows a lush area that gets plenty of water and the bottom shows a much drier area showing rhododendron growing in deep woods in a relatively dry area.
Native Rhododendrons
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.
