| One of the things about the Olympic Discovery Trail west of Morse Creek is the amazing view of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. It is about 30 miles to Vancouver Island and farther to the San Juan Islands. The Cascades and Mount Baker are even farther, so there is a lot of sea and sky visible. Looking north, away from the sun, one often sees patterns in the shadows of clouds falling on other clouds. This is known as crepuscular light, and it can often be subtle, but sometimes the rays of light are impossible to miss. Just in case you are having trouble seeing them in the picture to the right, roll your cursor over it to see a contrast enhanced version. |
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Keywords: morse creek, atmosphere, science
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03/14/10 - Sunrise at Lake Crescent It was quite a sunrise Saturday morning looking east over Lake Crescent, at least according to these images from the park service webcam. That's the moon rising along with the sun. Obviously, the sun couldn't have been that bright a the time, or the moon wouldn't be visible. It's definitely worth checking in on the various webcams now and then. |
 The morning gloaming |
 Sunrise and moonrise |
 Good morning! |
Keywords: lake crescent, atmosphere, science
| We often fly into Seattle on the local airline Kenmore Air. They fly little nine seat propeller airplanes from Fairchild Airport (CLM) a bit west of Port Angeles to Boeing Field (BFI) a bit south of Seattle. They are awfully convenient, and we often get spectacular views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. We took these on a later afternoon flight, heading home. |
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Keywords: seattle, atmosphere, flying, kenmore
 Courtesy of the National Atlas |
People tend to assume that if you are on the North Olympic Peninsula, then it is raining. This isn't actually true. If you look at the map, you can see the well known Sequim rain shadow, and you can also see that Port Angeles, towards the west is not all that much wetter. In fact, unless you are actually in the mountains, in which case all bets are off, it doesn't really start to rain until you get west of Lake Crescent.
Each color gradation represents a difference of ten inches of rainfall per year, so it can be quite dry around Port Angeles, even when Forks and the West End are getting soaked. |
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This little rainbow was visible during a rain squall at Lake Crescent. You can really see the bright colors and the relative brightness of the region under the arc. |
Keywords: atmosphere, lake crescent
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There is nothing like the morning mist on a mountain lake. The winds were calm, and Lake Crescent was placid. We were on the Spruce Railroad Trail, and this mist emphasized the quiet of the day. As we walked west the mist thickened and rose. Less than an hour later, near the end of our trail, the mist had evanesced. |
Keywords: lake crescent, spruce railroad, atmosphere
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Wow, the sunsets up at Hurricane Ridge look beautiful on the park web camera. We just loved this one sequence and had to share it. (Of course, we really should drive up there and see this live, but ...) |
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Keywords: hurricane ridge, atmosphere
Keywords: atmosphere, port angeles
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07/15/07 - Rainbow On The Ridge We often check the Hurricane Ridge web camera to get a sense of what the weather is doing in the high country. This morning there was a pleasant surprise. Check out the rainbow towards the right of the image. This might not make for the best hiking weather, but it sure does brighten the day.For some more interesting webcam images, check out our webcam movie page. |
 Click to enlarge |
Keywords: hurricane ridge, atmosphere, high country
| Since we've been gawking at the Hurricane Ridge webcam rainbow, we should also note that there was some amazing light at Lake Crescent this morning, as you can see in this webcam image. |
 Click to enlarge |
Keywords: lake crescent, atmosphere, hurricane ridge
12/26/06 - Antisolar Crepuscular Light After our Christmas dinner, but shortly before sunset we took a walk along the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, starting at Morse Creek. As we headed east back to the parking lot we were extremely aware of the failing light and the cloudy sky. We also noticed dark streaks in the sky towards the east, directly opposite the direction of the setting sun. These were not pillars of smoke, but something more interesting. They were the shadows of clouds cast by the setting sun. (Move your mouse over the picture to see a contrast exagerated view). Basically, when the sun is low, cloud shadows can be hundreds of miles long. They are most visible when viewed parallel to the direction of the casting light and area least visible when viewed perpendicularly. Because of perspective effects, the rays appear to diverge from the setting sun, which was obscured by the coastal bluffs we were at the base of, and they appear to converge at the antisolar point on the horizon opposite the sun.
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Antisolar crepuscular light as seen from the coastal trail along the Srait of San Juan de Fuca, not far from the mouth of Morse Creek |
Keywords: christmas, science, atmosphere, morse creek
11/15/05 - Soft Clouds at Lake Crescent With the late autumn moisture in the air, there is lots of soft light and lots of soft clouds. This photo was taken from near the Devil's Punchbowl, a popular swimming place along the Spruce Railroad Trail. It's a view west across the lake. Click on the image for a larger version, and enjoy the soft clouds, the soft sky and the soft lake water. |
Keywords: atmosphere, lake crescent, autumn, spruce railroad
05/26/05 - Hurricane Ridge Webcam Movies Here are some movies we made from the Hurricane Ridge web camera images. Click on either image to see a short movie of the moon setting or the snow melting. For more info, or to bookmark this, click here. |
Keywords: atmosphere, movies, hurricane ridge
05/12/05 - Hurricane Ridge Web Camera Wow, there is a new Hurricane Ridge web camera! We can't remember how many times it has been cloudy and gray at sea level, but a mile up at Hurricane Ridge the sky is blue and the air is clear. Now, we can check things out from ground level.UPDATE 05/13 - It has not taken us long to put together a short Quicktime movie from the webcam imagery. We apologize for the color balance and some of the blockiness, but this is a webcam on top of a mile high mountain. You will need to load Quicktime to view this movie, or the bigger version of it. |
Keywords: movies, atmosphere, high country, hurricane ridge
Keywords: atmosphere, spruce railroad, lake crescent
01/05/05 - Sunset at Second Beach Do we have great sunsets around here or what?We were out at Second Beach near La Push and couldn't help noticing a rather pretty sunset. The sea stacks, in silhouette, were pretty neat too. |
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Keywords: second beach, beaches, atmosphere, la push
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12/03/04 - Hurricane Ridge in the Winter Hurricane Ridge is once again open for cross country skiing and snow shoeing. This morning the road was open and there were five inches of snow at the "snow post" so we headed up to the ridge and checked things out. The road was open and well plowed. The scenery was spectacular with an amazing lemon sky. We had to blaze our own trail, but with so little snow it wasn't much of a problem. It was the true glory of the Northwest with white mountains and green trees. A great start for the winter season.NOTE (for disbelievers): No, we did not Photoshop in that yellow. That is what you see. That is what our camera recorded. The sky really is yellow with notes of pink. This is a lemon sky. A buttermilk sky is similar, but the yellow is tinged with blue. |
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Keywords: high country, atmosphere, food, hurricane ridge, winter, oysters
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There was a really neat rainbow this morning. One usually doesn't get
to see the whole bow, but this morning the light was just right. |
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Wow, we had a great sunset last night. It isn't a patch on the New
England autumn sunsets that are wonders of the world, but it was pretty
impressive for the northwest. |
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