The Port Townsend Vineyard’s tasting room in right along the waterfront in downtown PT. Besides a very nice interior space, there is an excellent patio that is enjoyed year round (by those souls brave enough). When the sun comes out in the middle of winter, bundling up around a fire with a nice glass of wine is enjoyed by many.
The Olympic Elk (or Roosevelt Elk … Teddy, not FDR) are much easier to see in winter when they are hanging out in the lowlands than in the summer when they wander around much of the Olympic National Park and at some high elevations. The first three shots are of the “Dosewallips herd” … in fact, the first two shots were taken in Dosewallips State Park. Number 3 was taken just across the river in the town of Brinnon … in the school yard. Number 4 is of the Skokomish herd, pictured crossing the North Fork of the Skokomish River at the upper end of Lake Cushman.
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.
