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.
I tried this in black and white, since the colors weren’t a big part of the image. But I ended up liking it better in color. I think it had to do mostly with the separation in the sky. The blue in the sky created more separation than it did when converted to a gray tone. But maybe I was just too lazy to keep working at it.
The only easily accessible place for winter sports on the Olympic Peninsula is Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, south of Port Angeles. For downhill, there isn’t any chair lift, but there is a bunny hill and some challenging routes for those willing and skilled enough to venture out of the official ski area. But there are some good cross-country routes and snowshoe routes. When the weather is clear, it’s spectacular.
Spring covers a wide range of changes to the forests and lowlands of the Olympic National Park. The high country doesn’t start being snow-free until summer … spring in the high country means snow travel. Lower down, the rivers can be running quite low … if the snow isn’t melting higher in the valleys and it’s not raining. The image above is at under 1000 feet elevation and shows the river running fairly low after a couple days of cool dry weather.
The image below shows a group of backpackers that had been up to Big Timber Camp on the West Fork of the Dosewallips. Big Timber is at 2300 feet and they reported 5 feet of hard packed snow at that point. You need good insulation between you and the ground to sleep on snow …
The image at the bottom shows the view up to the high country and the remaining snow in the trees. The area shown has melted out more, since it is open to the south and the sun is starting to do its thawing out trick.
Western Red Cedar to be specific. It is the native cedar along the Pacific Coast, until you get into Alaska where it tends to be replaced with some Yellow Cedar. Yellow cedar is a favorite of carvers. The name Incense Cedar is apt and the smell of the wood is wonderful. You can find it in Washington in the high country right on the edge of tree line.