Tag: Trails

Trail Variations

Elwha Basin

There’s a wide range of trails in the Olympic National Park. Some are well maintained (see below), and some and not so well maintained (like this one). The above image shows the ‘trail’ running above the Elwha Basin to the Elwha Snowfinger and Dodwell-Rixon Pass … one access point for one of the classic backcountry traverses of the Olympics (the Bailey Range Traverse). While I would have liked the basin trail to be well maintained … while we were hiking it … if all the trails were wide and well-maintained, there would be much larger numbers of people hiking them. There are few areas where one can still experience the solitude of nature … lack of trail maintenance protects this solitude. Trail maintenance just needs to be fully funded … there are millions of dollars of maintenance that is backlogged. The trail below is a section of the trail to the Enchanted Valley … another extremely popular destination.

Well-maintained (and well used) Trail in Olympic National Park.
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Dosewallips Fall Color

Dosewallips Fall Colors 1

The Dosewallips River drains the central section of the eastern Olympics. The road has been washed out for years and now makes a gentle hike for 6 miles into the Olympic National Park. While Washington State is not known for nice displays of fall colors, this year in the Olympics was particularly good. More yellows than reds … except for vine maples. Here you see mostly big leaf maples and their yellows.

Dosewallips Fall Colors 2
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Trail Walking — Fort Worden State Park

Trail Walk — 1

These photos were taken at Fort Worden State Park as I was testing out a Leica MP. One of the things I love about the MP is that it reminds me of the first 35mm camera I ever owned: an Argus C-3. They are both range finder cameras, which means it uses a non-through-the-lens manual focus. As a result, it is much lighter and quieter than typical SLRs or DSLRs. It also takes practice to get used to after all these years. The Leica offers wonderful build quality and is a joy to operate. I got mine used at a bargain price, and have decided to keep it … (It helps that I already had an assortment of lenses I could use with it.)

Trail Walk — 2
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Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington

Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington

Mt Ellinor and Mt Washington are the two southernmost prominent peaks in the Olympics visible on the Seattle western skyline. Mt Ellinor was named after Ellinor Fauntleroy, a member of a pioneering Seattle settler family. Ellinor has a trail to the summit and is one of the most heavily hiked trails in the Olympics. The view is spectacular. Mt Washington has some technical climbing in order to access the summit.

Below is a closer view of Ellinor.

Mt Ellinor

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