10/21/08 - The Morse Creek Trail

09/26/08 - The Adventure Trail

07/06/08 - Lake Angeles Trail Update

This time was different. The National Park Service has come through armed with chain saws and who knows what else. The trail is clear. We didn't make it all the way up to the lake, but we did get a good start. Other hikers, in better shape than we are, informed us that the lake is clear of snow. Several others were heading up with fishing rods in hand, and one group, heading down, reported swimming. Watch this page for the Kaleberg ascent.

03/29/08 - Flowering Currant at Morse Creek

12/28/07 - Snowshoeing On The Lake Angeles Trail

11/28/07 - The Elwha River Trail Is Open

11/25/07 - A Bit Beyond On The Lake Angeles Trail

11/20/07 - A Visit to the Lake Angeles Trail

11/19/07 - A Visit to the Spruce Railroad Trail

Even now, the park is still digging out. Hurricane Ridge Road is still closed, largely due to downed trees. We decided to take one of the more accessible trails at Lake Crescent, so we set out for the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north side of the lake. We didn't get far before our first obstacle. There was a big tree with lots of branches down across the trail (see the photo below). This did not bode well. We figured that we'd be clambering under and over tree trunks the entire walk, but we figured wrong. We actually made it three miles down the trail, to the "point", as we call it, and there were four, maybe five, trees down across the trail in all.

For our efforts, we were rewarded with the silvery lake, and some fantastic views of the mountains to the south. You can see the river clouds hanging over the Barnes Creek Valley in the photo to the right. There was a touch of snow on Storm King, but no solid snow line. There were lots of downed branches, and that gave us a wonderful opportunity. Rain forest trees, especially the big old maples, are covered with lichens, moss, Spanish moss, little ferns and the like, but these can be hard to see except rather low on the tree. There's just an overall impression of life and green-ness. With all the branches down, we got a better view. Below and to the right, there's a photo of a rather common lichen. It looks like a bunch of leaves, but the back is white. The algae get the sunny side and the funghi get the shady side, and they do very nicely together.

10/27/07 - Hurricane Ridge Panoramas

This week, the high country opened again. The snow had melted from the hills, and the ice had melted from the road. The twisty little road to Hurricane Hill was closed, and Obstruction Point Road was closed for the season, so we decided to climb up to Sunrise Point and then see where the trails took us. The day was spectacular, with the sky blue and the snow on the mountains white. Even a tame trail in the Olympic high country offers a lot of great stuff to look at.

To share the experience, we took a few panorama photos. If you click on the little preview you should get a larger version that you can pan across in your web browser. It isn't the same as the real thing, but it might give you a sense of the view from Hurricane Ridge.

Along the ridge - click on the picture for a bigger version that you can pan horizontally.

A good view of Mount Angeles, and everything else - click on the picture for a bigger version that you can pan horizontally

09/27/07 - Elk Season at the Hoh Rainforest

It takes a bit under two hours to get from the ranger station and the interpretive trails to Five Mile Island, and along the way is all rain forest with ferns, moss, gnarled maples, giant trees, fallen nurse logs, rocky streams, waterfalls, and glimpses of the stony flat of the Hoh River's bed. There was even a bit of autumn color among the deciduous trees set off against the magnificent green of the evergreens.

At Five Mile Island we wandered out on the water rounded stones and walked over to the nearest channel of the Hoh. The river moves around from season to season, sometimes running hard against the north shore, but lately the main channel has been drifting south, so we settled on a log alongside one of the smaller channels and ate our lunch. (That was chicken sandwiches with bacon, tomatoes, and avocado on sourdough).

We have never seen the trail or the river so beautiful. The light was perfect with the sun high and from the south. We were amazingly pleased when we got back to the car, but there was a lagniappe ahead. As we left the parking lot, alongside the little pond, there was a herd of elk in the trees.

We, and a good number of others, stopped and emerged. There was one great bull elk and a cow with a fawn among others in the woods. The light wasn't very good, but we did manage to take a few pictures. All told, it was a wonderful day.

07/05/07 - The Dungeness Dike Trail Revisited

We were in the Dungeness Valley today and decided to stretch our legs on the Dungeness Dike Trail. Those cows are the Jerseys at the Dungeness Valley Creamery. Those mountains in the distance are the Olympic range. The trail along the Dungeness River dike is easy going, and there are several paths down to the river itself, but we spent most of our time admiring the view.

06/03/07 - Lake Angeles Trail Report

We finally got around to checking out the Lake Angeles Trail. This is an often overlooked trail that runs from near the Hurricane Ridge Road entry station at about 1900' to Lake Angeles at about 4300'. It is a wonderful climb, and it is usually passable well before the high country is open. This year, we'd like to report that the trail is open to the lake, and, according to an informant who was returning from the lake, all of the snow around the lake has melted. We ourselves didn't get much above 3000'. We need to get back into shape, but it's nice to know that the lake is waiting for us.

As for the trails around Hurricane Ridge. As of a few days ago, there was a lot of melt, but also a lot of snow. The road to the Hurricane Hill trailhead is still unplowed, but at the rate things are melting, the high country should be opening up through the month of June.