May 2023June 2023 July 2023

06/22 - Little River Trail

With the Hurricane Ridge Road still closed, we took a hike along the Little River Trail. It was our usual hike to the second log bridge. It's another summer hike with the trees full of leaves and the vegetation lush. It always gets better when the trail leaves DNR land and enters the national park. That's shortly before the trail descends to the river which was flowing nicely this time of year.

Early on the trail, in DNR land

Our first Pacific dogwood

The little bridge

Bloodroot

More dogwood

Close up Pacific dogwood

Even more

The Little River

A log over the river

False Solomon's seal, past bloom

Light and dark

Rough stone

One of the log bridges

Blue water

Another look at the Little River

The river IS one of the highlights of this trail.

Looking down at the river

Lush green forest

A piece of the trail

Devil's claw

A caterpillar - We saw a fair number of these.

Keywords: little river, summer

06/21 - Dunguness Ducklings

They are working on the Dungeness Dike again. We aren't sure of what they are doing, but they a "Trail Closed" sign and some heavy equipment doing stuff. We cut our walk short and stopped to watch the ducklings on our way back to the schoolhouse.

Dungeness River flow

The marshlands with secret ducklings

More flooded areas

The trail was closed

Someone racing along leaving a trail of dust

Someone digging a hole?

Duck and ducklings

Quite a few of them

And another duckling photo

Keywords: dungeness

06/20 - A Shooting Star

We saw this flower at the entry station for the Dungeness Spit. We usually see this up in the high country, but with the lodge fire closing the road, we haven't been climbing mountains lately.

Keywords: dungeness, dungeness spit, high country

06/18 - Marine Drive

We took a short walk along Marine Drive. There was no way we were going to walk down to Cline Spit or the old Oyster House area, so we followed Marine Drive and enjoyed the view of the strait below.

A bit of the view

A red headed bird

One of the B&Bs along the drive

A look down

On the water

Another view

A white headed bird

Keywords: marine drive

06/16 - Butterfly Season

We hiked from Madison Falls to the Altair Bridge over the Elwha River. It's basically summer now, so we're watching the elderberry flowers, and we can't help but notice all the swallowtail butterflies. This is a great year for them.

Turk's cap lilies

The summer forest

Along the trail

Paintbrush - a summer flower

More summer flowers

More of the trail, very green now

Elderberry flowers

A glimpse of the Elwha

Trilliums and tiarella past bloom

Yet another stretch of trail

A proper view of the Elwha

From the Altair Bridge looking north

From the bridge looking south

A butterfly showing off

Still showing off

Visiting a turk's cap lily

Close up

Keywords: elwha, flowers, summer

06/12 - Bird Watching at Dungeness Dike

Eventually, construction will resume at the Dungeness Dike, but, for now, we're going to take advantage of the peace and quiet. The dike offers wonderful views and great bird watching. The birds don't mind the flooding at all. ...

Mergansers

Gray sky

The flood plain

Birds in a tree

A closer look

A red tailed hawk

The fields

Poppies

Towne Road

Another bird

More marsh

Even more marsh with a bird perched

That blackbird more closely

Keywords: birds, dungeness

Keywords: birds, dungeness

06/09 - Dungeness Highlands

When the tides are against us at Dungeness Spit, we'll head inland and stick to the highlands. That's an out and back hike we take along the bluffs, then inland to a viewing point. It's a short walk from there to the parking lot, so we turn around and retrace our steps. There are grasslands, forests, thickets and some wonderful mountain views.

Along the bluffs

Sunny trail

Distant mountains and nearby roses

More sunny trail

More distant mountains

Seen along the way

Heading north

More open country

Another vista

Yet another

Another thicket - They're popular.

Another look at the Olympic Mountains

And another

A tree full of birds

A close up

Back through the thicket

A floral collage

Keywords: dungeness, dungeness spit, tides

Keywords: dungeness, dungeness spit, tides

May 2023June 2023 July 2023