Tag: River

Pyramid Mountain

Pyramid Mountain

This mountain is outside of Haines, Alaska … I know it by Pyramid Mountain … but I’m not sure that is the official name. You can tell why it would have that name locally, regardless of what the maps say. I lived up in Haines one winter in the mid-70’s. I’ve heard that their annual snowfall has taken a big hit since then. The river is the Chilkat and at this point it is starting to be impacted by tidal flow. This was taken September 1st, so shows the low point of snow pack.

I may have emphasized the clouds some, but they were boring before. Just some increase in contrast.

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North Fork Skokomish Winter Hike

Staircase Rapids, North Fork Skokomish, Olympic National Park

In my last post I talked about a trip we took up the Staircase Rapids Trail along the North Fork Skokomish in Olympic National Park. This was a section of the rapids … where they are not quite so dramatic. But this spot gives a view up valley and the frost was covering the rocks along the bank (needs a close look in the photo). We hiked up to the bridge crossing the river and turned around and hiked back. The image below is taken from the middle of the bridge.

View from the middle of the Staircase Rapids Loop bridge.

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Staircase Area, Olympic National Park

North Fork Skokomish Delta

We took a trip down to the North Fork Skokomish area this last weekend and parked just outside the Olympic National Park boundary … since the road was blocked off at that point. There is a nice forest service day use park there (but it’s small). It’s a mile and a half up a blacktop road to the Staircase Ranger Station and Campground … and we brought along our bikes. It was a nice ride (i.e. flat) and once we got to the campground, the road ended and we hiked up the river for a mile and a half, to the Staircase Rapid bridge. A beautiful winter day … lots of folks out enjoying the sun … but we were the only bikes. There were a lot more cars parked along the road than were day hiking. I’m sure there were several parties winter backpacking … much heartier than I.

The image below is just by the campground where we left the bikes.

View of the North Fork Skokomish from the Ranger Station bridge.
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N Fork Skokomish Trail and River

N Fork Skokomish Trail

Regular readers will notice that I visit the same locations over and over. The North Fork Skokomish area is one of my favorites and I have gone back dozens of times over the years. It interests me to watch the changes to the valley over the years and during the year. Autumn is one of the times when things are changing rapidly.

N Fork Skokomish River
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Middle Dosewallips River

Middle Dosewallips River

On our dayhike up the Dosewallips Road/Trail, we hiked about 2.5 miles in. Our original destination was Elkhorn Campground … a drive in camp isolated due to the washout of the Dosewallips (or the “Dose” … pronounced (Doe’-See) road (Olympic National Forest and access to the Olympic National Park). We were almost to the entrance to the campground and saw an abandoned road running over towards the river. We followed that and came to a cement bridge across the Dose that I had never been to before (or at least since the road washed out). There wasn’t much on the southern bank except a brief hint of where the road continued … I identified it as Forest Service road 2353 and a map shows it running across the flats on that side of the river. Who knows when it was constructed … except it must have been for logging. One wonders if the road is reopened, if logging will resume in the Olympic National Forest sections.

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