Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: spring, Page: 2

04/05/23 - Signs of Spring - Elwha to Altair - Trilliums and Columbines Our search for signs of spring took us to the Elwha River. We parked near Madison Falls and followed the road past the mule camp where we saw our first sign of spring: the mules were back. That was promising. We headed onto the detour trail and saw our first yellow violets of the season along with some of those pale pink flowers that bloom so early. Then we saw our first trillium. It was the only one we saw, but we're pretty sure more will follow. Further down the trail, we saw the skunk cabbage with its faint smell of sulphur. We checked out the river from the Altair Bridge. It was relatively low. The snows have not yet begun to melt. We could see snow on the peaks, some of it fresh. On our way back, we spotted another sign of spring. We saw our first columbines. To be fair, we saw their leopard spotted leaves. They weren't ready to bloom, but when you are desperate for signs of spring, that's close enough.	Yellow violets
Little pink flowers	The harbinger trillium
The trail	The river
The road	Skunk cabbage
The river from the Altair Bridge
Currant flowers	Snow covered hill across the river
Snow

	Flowing water
Columbine leaves
Another columbine leaf	Another leaf
White flowers and	blue flowers along the road

Keywords: elwha, flowers, spring, trillium

04/04/23 - Signs of Spring - Cherry Blossoms at UW This has been a long, cold, rough winter, so we've been seeking out signs of spring. We checked the UW web site and saw that the cherry blossoms were at peak bloom. There was no way we could resist. We drove into Seattle and explored the Quad. It was full of cherry blossoms and people marveling at them. We had thought that selfie sticks had gone out of style, but the Quad was full of them. Even better, it was full of dark gnarly trees with clouds of pale pink flowers. It seems like spring is finally coming even as a cold wind still blows now and then. It was worth driving into town for a taste of the still incoming season. We're in less of a hurry now, but we're still seeking out signs of spring.

Keywords: flowers, seattle, spring

04/02/22 - Elwha to Altair - Spring Is Here We were absolutely exhausted but really wanted to take another good hike before the rainy days come, so we headed out from the Madison Falls parking lot and followed the trail. It's a good winter trail, but it's an even better spring trail. We hadn't gone very far before our first trillium, and then came the columbines. Trilliums like sloping ground, usually near water, so they'll grow on hillsides above streams. Columbines like a sunny spot on crumbling rocky soil, and there are only a few places like that on this trail. That's where we found them. We headed on past other signs of spring. Skunk cabbage filled the boggy fields further up towards the bridge. There were currant blossoms, and there were a lot of new leaves and leaf buds. Even the larger trees were showing touches of green. Columbine season is short, so we'll have to come back soon, but we'll be back again and again as the season progresses. It's a pretty good summer trail too.	Our first trillium on the trail
Yellow violets	More yellow violets
One of the columbines	Another columbine
Another trillium	Some little white flowers that we see every year and never bother to look up in the wildflower book
The Elwha	Another view of the Elwha
Fern forest	The skunk cabbage bog
The Elwha from the Altair bridge	Wild currant
A touch of green in the trees	Most of the snow melted
Yet another trillium	Yet another columbine
A columbine in its place	The mules are back!

Keywords: elwha, spring, trillium

04/01/22 - Little River Trail - Return of the Trilliums The Little River Trail is a great trail this time of year. The high country is still covered with snow, but the lower reaches of the Little River Trail are in great shape and, already, there are signs of spring. In particular, the trilliums are out. There are just a few trilliums in bloom, and a few more popping up and getting ready, but over the next few weeks this trail will be lined with them.	Our first trillium of 2022
The forest trail	Little River
Still early spring	Sunlight breaks through
Another view of the river	Down close
More flowers	A blurry photo of our first yellow violet - We have Sasquatch photos that are sharper.
An old log and a new fern	More trilliums
The bridge where we turned around	The ground
Trail maintenance - quite a fallen tree	Little River again
One of the many rapids	Even more trilliums
Another view	And another

Keywords: Olittle river, spring, trillium

03/19/22 - Elwha to Altair Again We took another hike up to the Altair Bridge. It is getting even more spring-like. This time, there was serious skunk cabbage and a few currants were in bloom. It's a slow spring, but it's starting.	The Elwha River
Another view of the Elwha	More Elwha
Overgrown logs	This used to be an easy way to get down to the river, but those logs washed ashore.
The trail	The road
A maple	View of the river
Skunk cabbage	and more skunk cabbage
Snow lingers on the mountains	Snow again
Currant blossoms	Even more skunk cabbage

Keywords: elwha, spring

03/14/22 - Marymere Falls and Barnes Creek There is a lovely little loop from the Barnes Creek parking lot just off of route 101. It takes one to Marymere Falls, and, all told, it is less than an hour's walk. When we want to explore a bit more, we leave the loop and head up Barnes Creek. We rarely go all that far, but this stretch of trail is less crowded and less known but just as lovely. It follows the river heading up and down through lush green forest. Our goal is a little spring that flows down the hillside and across the trail. It is nothing like Marymere Falls, but it is a good turning point for that little extra.	Rainy day forest
Marymere Creek - Note the drop of water on the lens.	The base of the falls
Marymere Falls	Along the trail
The bridge over Barnes Creek	Barnes Creek
Seen by the trailside, details	Fern forest
More of the forest floor	The muddy, but easily passable, trail
Another river view	Yet another
The little spring, our goal	You can step over this one, easily.
Another view	More ferns
More Barnes Creek	Another wide view

Keywords: barnes creek, marymere falls, spring

02/18/22 - Elwha to Altair - Signs of Spring We took a walk from the Elwha parking lot at Madison Falls and kept our eyes open for signs of spring. As it turned out, it wasn't our eyes that noticed the first hint, it was our nose. Between the ranger station and the Altair bridge, we picked up a faint whiff of sulfur like a leaky sewage pipe. In March, that could only mean one thing, skunk cabbage! (To be honest, it could have been a leaky sewage pipe, but come on.)	The forest
More green woods	A cluster of logs washed ashore and now blocking our usual path down to the river
The Elwha	More green
The Elwha from the Altair bridge	Skunk cabbage
and more skunk cabbage	Snowdrops, also a sign of spring

Keywords: elwha, spring

04/13/21 - Up The Elwha To Altair We've been getting out more thanks to the warming weather and our COVID vaccinations. We've been wandering up Olympic Hot Springs Road along the Elwha starting at Madison Falls where the road closes to traffic and up to the Altair Bridge. There's a detour through the hills behind the old Elwha Campground which was washed out along with the road. All along the way we've been spotting signs of spring. Already, the columbines and trilliums are coming out, and the skunk cabbage is nearing its peak. The river is still calm before the spring melt, but with ten plus feet of snow at Hurricane Ridge, we expect an impressive flow when the melting begins in earnest. We'll keep coming back to see how things progress.	A columbine bud
A columbine flower	Another columbine
Trilliums	Another trillium
The Elwha	Fiddleheads
Ferns, also known as grown up fiddleheads	Skunk cabbage
The view from the Altair Bridge	A swamp marigold blossom

Keywords: elwha, spring, trillium, weather

03/12/20 - Morse Creek West When we are feeling lazy, we'll often take a walk along the Olympic Discovery Trail starting at the Morse Creek parking off route 101. It's a gentle popular trail, but it's nice and wide, so there is plenty of room for social distancing. It had been closed for a while after it was damaged by the wind and rain. We could see some of the damage at the east end of the dike, and the dike itself is in rough shape. One can follow the trail into Port Angeles and continue west, but our "just enough" walk is usually about a half an hour out and another half an hour back.	The pale area is where they had to rebuild the dike.
Trees along the trail	Along the dike
Looking east	Rough water
More along the trail	More salt water
Heading back	Little blue flowers, a sign of spring

Keywords: flowers, morse creek, port angeles, spring

02/19/20 - Seattle Winter We took a short trip into Seattle for the SIFF Noir City Film Festival. We took our usual trip up to Ballard Locks where the water was running at full force. The fish ladder was closed for repairs as was one of the locks, but the winter and early spring flowers were already in bloom. As a bonus, there was a tree full of nesting herons. We've never seen them there before, but this time there were at least six and possibly more.	Seattle in the evening
Daphnes in bloom	Early crocuses
Water at full flow	A more distant view
Herons in the tree	More herons and their nests
Herons and nests from a distance	Frothing water
An empty lock	The view downstream
Edgeworthia chrysantha with a wonderful scent	Berries
Evening in Seattle	Another evening view
Post Alley at night	Pike Place Market at night
Another market view	Seattle streets

Keywords: flowers, seattle, spring, winter

06/22/19 - Little River Trail We've been regulars on the Little River Trail. We've following spring into summer. The trail is more hidden as the deciduous trees have leafed out and the trilliums have vanished, replaced by Pacific dogwood.	The trail
Plant life	More plant life
The river	Another view of the river, hidden by green
A trillium gone to seed	A salmonberry
Pacific dogwood	Even more plant life
Another bit of trail	And yet another

Keywords: little river, spring, summer, trillium

06/06/19 - To The Elwha Dam Overlook We've been taking the scenic detour and making our way farther and farther along Olympic Hot Springs Road. We finally made it all the way to the dam overlook. It was a long walk, especially with the detour, but it was a cool sunny day and easy going.	Olympic Hot Springs Road and green forest
Maple pods, bright red in the sun	Maple pods in the shade
One of the many, many roses that scented the trail	A peek at a peak
The waterfall into the Elwha	Another view of that waterfall, worth stopping for
The dam site	The Elwha upstream, formerly Lake Mills
A view downstream	Another view upstream
Green forest and bright sunlight	Another study in contrast
The Elwha River from the Altair Bridge	Foxglove
A duck to look up	A butterfly in the sun

Keywords: elwha, spring

05/19/19 - Again, to the Altair Bridge We have been turning this into a regular walk, starting at Madison Falls and heading, by way of the detour, to the Altair Bridge over the Elwha. The columbines are gone and the trilliums and dogwood almost past, but the tiarella is now in bloom as are other late spring blossoms. As usual, we stopped to soak our feet in the river. A bit later, we had to step to the side of the trail to let a mule team get by. The park service people and animals were heading out to do trail work. The mules were new to the area and a bit skittish. We did our best to keep them calm. The river is still pretty high, so the park service might just be waiting for it to go down, but we're guessing that they won't be setting up the temporary bridges the way they did last year. Despite this, we'll be back in a week or two to follow the spring progression and we'll let you know the latest.	The Elwha as seen from the Altair Bridge
Another view of the Elwha	Yet another view
The river is so high that the river branch that cut the road has flooded. The gap may grow.	The forest detour
Tiarella	Elderberry flower buds
Another tiarella	Stinky bob on an old maple tree
A mushroom	The Elwha from the bank
An entire forest growing on a tree	A fading trillium
Paintbrush	More tiarella
More of the forest trail	Across the river, lupines in bloom

Keywords: elwha, spring, trillium

05/16/19 - Hurricane Hill The Hurricane Hill Trail is open. It is still being rebuilt, so it is only open about half the time. Check the park web page and scroll down to the calendar before you head up expecting to take this hike. Note that the trail is ALWAYS closed on Wednesdays. Also note that the road is closed at the second picnic area, so the trailhead is now an additional ten minute walk from parking. That said, the view from the trail is as beautiful as ever. Most of the trail is free of snow, and the snow is melting rapidly. The glacier lilies are out as is the phlox, so keep your nose peeled for that latter flower's wonderful scent. There were many marmots about which was a nice treat. We didn't quite make it to the summit, so that's for our next try. We had a long winter this year, so it's great that the high country is finally open again.	The Olympic Mountains
Phlox	A view from the trail
More of the mountains	A late winter scene
One of the many marmots	Another mountain view
Another marmot	A marmot in a field of delicious, to a marmot, spring flowers
The marmot by the trailside	That marmot checking us out
That marmot again offering us a closeup	A bit of snow on a shady stretch of trail
More spring flowers	Some of the trail work, a stone retaining wall where the trail has been widened
More phlox	Glacier lilies
Glacier lilies in closeup	Goodbye to the mountains

Keywords: high country, hurricane hill, marmots, spring

05/06/19 - To the Altair Bridge We've been slowly reclaiming the Elwha, hiking farther along now disused section of Olympic Hot Springs Road. This time we made it all the way to the Altair Bridge, sort of a breakthrough for us. The bridge is still there. It's just farther away. It was great seeing the view of the Elwha from the bridge again, and we're hoping to go farther, perhaps to dam site overlook. Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the river and the flowers.	Along the detour
Paintbrush	Flowers
An orchid	Mahonia
Trilliums	More flowers
The view of the Elwha from the Altair Bridge	The view in the other direction
Skunk cabbage	One of the Elwha's new branches
A view of the old Elwha campground	Another orchid
Tiarella	More flowers
Forest	Dogwood

Keywords: elwha, flowers, spring

04/15/19 - Spring Flowers on the Elwha Detour We finally followed the Elwha detour from where it leaves Olympic Hot Springs Road about a half mile past Madison Falls to where it rejoins the road past the old Elwha campground. It's a 250 foot or so climb, but it goes through forest, and the forest is full of columbines, trilliums and other spring flowers. The detour trail heads up past a work area at the end of the service road and then heads higher to a junction with the Cascade Rock trail. There are glimpses of the Elwha along the way as it follows the ridge past the washout. After the junction the trail goes down a bit, then up a bit, then slowly descends behind the old campground. There is a sturdy tributary of the Elwha running between the trail and the collapsed campground pavilion. The trail lets out a bit past the washout but before the ranger station and work area. It took us about 45 minutes from Madison Falls, so it would be another 15 or 20 minutes to the Altair bridge. We didn't make it that far, at least not this time.	A perfect place for columbines
Columbines	and more
and more	and even more

Other spring flowers	The trail ahead
One of the many trilliums	and a pair, overlapping,
and another	and yet more
Skunk cabbage, a sure sign of spring	The old campground pavilion across the new Elwha channel
More of the trail	We forget what this is called
Mysterious rock overhangs and mysterious caves	A glimpse of the high country

Keywords: elwha, flowers, spring, trillium

04/09/19 - First Trillium of the Season

It has been a long hard winter. The signs of spring have been late in coming, but yesterday, while walking down to the Dungeness Spit, we saw our first trillium of the year. It may be coming slowly, but spring is on its way.

Keywords: dungeness spit, spring, trillium

03/29/19 - Cherry Blossoms at UW Spring is here or at least in Seattle. We made a quick day trip to Seattle to check out the cherry blossoms at the University of Washington. They were in full bloom, and the quad had the air of a festival with hundreds of people out admiring the flowers, taking pictures and celebrating the arrival of spring. We joined in and took lots of pictures.	Cherry blossoms - We're not going to have a lot of captions here.
	Califlory - flowers growing out of the tree trunk







A sign of thanks	A magnolia tree joining the fun.

Keywords: flowers, seattle, spring

Newer Entries

Older Entries

Caption
Previous	Back to Web Page	Next