This is the view of the valley of the Elwha River from Hurricane Ridge. The Elwha River runs down through the middle of the Olympic National Park. All these valleys were behind the Glines Canyon Dam for over 100 years. With the removal of the dam, all of these rivers are now wild and the salmon and steelhead runs are returning.
The previous post showed the smoke from the Bear Gulch fire being blown into the Hurricane Ridge area of the Olympic National Park where we were hiking. Before the smoke got dense, there were some interesting shots available showing atmospheric effects from lesser amounts of smoke. The image above is looking east across the Elwha River valley to the Bailey Range and just the very top of Mt Olympus. Below is from the same time/location but looking south down the valley of the Elwha.
I recently did a day drive up to Hurricane Ridge In Olympic National Park. The road runs up into the alpine area, which makes it nice if you are carrying a bunch of camera equipment. The top photo is looking south into the center of the park and the Elwha River valley. The end of June is a good time for wild flowers, since most of the snow has left. I was able to find a trail where I was by myself and not packed in with all the other folks (they were mostly hiking trails near the main parking lot or Hurricane Hill).
The second image is Olympic Onion, which is described as being rare. I’ve seen it a few times and it smells strongly of onion. Since I’ve never seen it in huge masses, I’ve never harvested any for enhancing the flavor of my backpacking food. (although it sure would help)
Third image is larkspur … which competes with lupine in the blue/purple assemblage.
A couple of valley views. Number 1 is farmland off the Larry Scott Trail. Number 2 is looking southwest across the Chinese Gardens (there’s no gardens there anymore … refers to their historic location) in Fort Worden State Park.
These two images weren’t taken exactly from the same spot at the same time. But it was close. The huge difference in air quality is only apparent, with the direction relative to the sun being the primary difference between the two. The top photo looks across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (note the fog bank) and into the hazy distant view of Vancouver Island. Below looks south towards the Upper Graywolf valley and the Olympic Mountains. Backlighting the haze really makes it stand out.
