04/10/25 - Elwha to Altair - Springwatch

It's springwatch, and one of our favorite places to watch for signs of spring is the Elwha valley. We start at Madison Falls, the end of Olympic Hot Springs Road, and make our way via the detour through the hills behind the old campground, to the Altair Bridge. We've already spotted fawn lilies and trilliums and checked out the skunk cabbage. There were more trilliums this time and the skunk cabbage was going strong.

Along the detour route, we spotted some park people redoing the trail a bit. They were carrying some heavy boards to shore up parts of the trail. There were sections where the trail had been recut since runs along the face of a ridge. It looks like they are doing serious maintenance which is good to see. For example, there was an extremely muddy section of the trail, and, some time back, they set up a new route on higher ground.

From the Altair Bridge we saw a couple of park workers doing some kind of measurement. This involved setting up a rope and wading across the stream a bit downriver of the bridge. We've seen this before. We still aren't sure what they are doing. Measuring the flow? Setting up to count fish? Again, it was good to see them wet and at work as yet another sign of spring.


Fawn lilies


Fawn lily leaves


Mountain view

The twins - double trilliums

More trilliums

The Elwha River


Olympic Hot Springs Road


Clouds

Clouds and snow

Skunk cabbage

Mystery bird



From the bridge

Getting ready to wade

Currant



The mules are back.

Keywords: elwha, olympic hot springs, spring, trilliums

04/07/25 - Dungeness Spit

We lucked out at Dungeness Spit with an extremely low tide. We mainly wanted to take the Primitive Trail, the alternate route from the trailhead to the spit itself, but with the low tide and lots of beach available, we made our way past the half mile marker. The footing was good, and we should note that we are now in the season of daylight low tides suitable for hiking out to the lighthouse.

The Primitive Trail is a less used, slightly longer route, but it takes one through forest, so we were rewarded with birds and trilliums. There was some early mock Solomon's seal with just a few leaves, so we'll have to come back later in the season. We avoided the nettles and had a lovely springtime walk.


Trilliums

The wide beach

An offshore duck

Driftwood

Looking back at the Olympics

The spit

Mount Baker and the lighthouse

The spit again


The Primitive Trail


Springtime slug





A forest bird - a lucky photo


Keywords: birds, dungeness spit, spring, tides, trilliums

04/01/25 - Elwha to Altair

Now that spring is here, we've been hiking from Madison Falls up along the Elwha to the Altair Bridge. Most of the route follows Olympic Hot Springs Road, but the road is cut off by the river not far from the trailhead, so we take the detour through the hills around the old, now flooded, campground.

We were well rewarded. Our goal was skunk cabbage, and there was lots of skunk cabbage, especially past the ranger station as we approached the bridge. It grows in the drainage ditches and flooded areas of forest.

We also saw the fawn lilies. The first few are out with their delicate stalks and lovely hanging flowers. There were also a few trilliums, not many, but enough to convince us that spring has come.


A fawn lily

Our first trillium of the season






Skunk cabbage

The old work area across from the ranger station

Skunk cabbage in the forest


The view from the bridge



The road is getting tired.


A fiddlehead




The mules are back in town.

Keywords: elwha, flowers, spring, trilliums

06/24/24 - Little River Trail

We didn't get very far on the Little River Trail, just to the "healing pools", a section of the trail where it is easy to get down to the river and wade. The cold water does wonders for one's feet. Along the way, the spring flowers had given way to the summer flowers. There were trilliums with their pods but no flowers, but the blood root and Pacific dogwood were in bloom.

A bit of the trail

Bloodroot

Can you spot the trilliums without their flowers?

Another bit of trail with a nurse log

More of the trail

Pacific dogwood

More dogwood

Even more dogwood

Down by the Little River

Another bit of the river

A huge trillium

A bit of a robin's egg

One of the "canyons"

Keywords: flowers, little river, spring, summer, trilliums

05/18/24 - Lake Angeles With Frogs

We've been trying to get back into climbing shape in hopes of being able to climb in the high country. We made it a little past the log bridge on the Lake Angeles Trail that starts near Lake Dawn. The spring flowers are about, but the special treat was, once again, frogs. There were the usual trilliums and violets and orchids, but also tiny little frogs perhaps the size of a fifty cent piece and large frogs over an inch log. They are very well camouflaged, but once you've spotted the first it is easier spotting the second, third and so on.

The log bridge

Water streaming

Water from the far side of the bridge

A trillium

A tiny little frog

Another tiny little frog

A blurry little frog - Autofocus can't do everything.

Yet another frog - the fourth plague

There may be a frog in there.

Or perhaps one here.

Aha! one of the more cooperative larger frogs

Mushrooms

Another mushroom

The forest

A cooperative squirrel

A fawn lily

A violet

More flowers

More Trilliums

Another trillium

Another violet

Keywords: flowers, high country, lake angeles, spring, trilliums

05/10/24 - Elwha to Altair

We made our way from Madison Falls to the Altair Bridge. The river had been active this winter, so a great log had blocked part of the detour. We had to scramble a bit on our previous hike, but this time it seems the park service had done an admirable job dealing with an immense log.

Still trilliums

The park service cut through this immense log.

The hike was much easier this time.

Along the Elwha

Tiarella

The Elwha from the Altair Bridge

A snake on the trail

Mountains and greenery

More green by the trail

The forest

A toad lily

More forest

The Elwha from the parking lot

Some ground

Larkspur

Keywords: elwha, trilliums