Tag: Stream

North Fork Skokomish Fire Before and After (2)

The Olympic National Park opened up the Staircase Rapids Loop Trail on July 8th for the first time since the fire in 2025 devastated the area. The valley of the North Fork Skokomish was one of my favorite locations and I went to take photos of the area on the 8th. Each set of photos shows the same location before and after. Some images aren’t exact matches … but I did as well as I could with the images I had. The Staircase Loop Trail leaves from the Staircase Ranger Station, runs 1 mile (1.6 KM), crosses the river (on a bridge that was protected from the fire) and returns back to the parking lot.

Today’s post shows a couple of the spots running up the trail to the bridge across the river. This side of the river was not as heavily devasted as the opposite side.

Slate Creek Before
Slate Creek After
Blowdowns from the Mid-’90’s
Blowdowns and Burn
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Water Moods

Beach Water

These images of water all have very different moods to them. The one above is taken from Fort Worden in Port Townsend, the middle one is the Port Townsend waterfront and the bottom one is small tributary of the Dosewallips River (Phantom Creek), near the small town of Brinnon. They were all taken on Portra 400 using a Nikon F6.

Port Townsend Waterfront
Phantom Creek near Brinnon, WA.
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Sometimes It’s Worth Getting Your Feet Wet

Wading a Cold Mountain Stream

Sometimes it’s really worth getting your feet wet, even if the water is really cold. In this case, wading across this stream (and a little hike uphill) gave us the perspective below. Well, that little wading plus a few days hiking. These were taken in Martins Park in the Central Olympic National Park.

View from Martins Park
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Unnamed Stream

Unnamed Stream

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.

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Rivers and Streams

Upper Duckabush River

What’s a river? What’s a stream or creek? The amount of water doesn’t tell the whole story. Where on the river are you? These photos were taken in the Olympic National Park, so they aren’t long rivers or creeks, but they can carry a lot of water, especially in winter.

The image above shows the Duckabush River over 20 miles up the valley from the mouth. The location is where the Duckabush River Trail crosses the river (via ford) and starts the climb to Marmot Lake and then up to O’Neil Pass.

The photo below is Home Sweet Home Creek just about where it enters the Duckabush River, adding to its volume. This creek runs down from First Divide … the pass between the Duckabush Valley and the North Fork Skokomish. There is no bridge crossing this stream … go rock hopping or wade, your choice.

Home Sweet Home Creek
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