Scenery in Olympic National Park

Hoh Rain Forest

Where’s Boolie?

The past few years I’ve made it a point to take self-portraits as I travel on my hiking trips but I didn’t take any while at Mount Rainier National Park. Partially because I wasn’t in the mood, I didn’t want to take pictures of myself while pikas and marmots were around. Partially because I usually didn’t have the tripod along on the long hikes with thousands of feet in elevation change.

When I arrived in Olympic National Park, however, I was both in the mood and had the tripod along. I took some portraits in the Quinalt Rain Forest during the couple of hours I had there, then the next morning took this one in the Hoh Rain Forest. This one is probably my favorite self-portrait ever, it highlights both the massive size of these ancient trees and my silly mood.

Heavy moss on a tree in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

Greens

Green is the color of the Hoh Rain Forest, so in that spirit, here’s green, green, and more green from the heavy moss that covers the trees in the Hoh Rain Forest.

Green plants in a shallow stream in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

Wet Greens

The Hoh River in Olympic National Park is fed by melting snow from glaciers high in the Olympic range that grind rocks into silt that color the runoff a milky blue. I suspect this little stream running through the Hall of Mosses Trail is spring fed, as unlike the Hoh its clear waters showed the brilliant green plants that were swaying in the gentle current.

Moss-draped trees in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

Hurricane Ridge

The Lidless Eye

I took these pictures not from Mordor but Hurricane Ridge. A fog was rolling in up high on the ridge just as the sun set, creating this circle of orange light around the setting sun. I’ve never seen this happen before, but it’s not a trick of photography or Photoshop, the circle was visible with the naked eye.

Foggy sunset seen from the Hurricane Hill Trail in the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park

Scenic view from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park

Views into the World

Hurricane Ridge is easily accessible by car (if the roads are not closed due to snow), and you can take really short hikes or longer day hikes that have the feel of thebackcountry. I was awed by sweeping panoramas where the hillside falls down below you into the distant valley, then rises up in the distant foothills and then further up to the snow-capped Olympic range. I felt at once very small, but also connected to the creation all around.

A dead tree looks like a natural goalpost on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park

God’s Own Goalpost

The Hurricane Hill Trail is easily a day hike (easily being a relative term, there is some elevation change here) with a feel of the backcountry and great views of the surrounding valleys and the Olympic range. Black-tailed deer are prevalent along the trail, once a buck popped out of the forest a few feet from me and immediately jumped back into the trees. This dead tree always reminds me of a natural goalpost whenever I see it.

Lake Crescent

Fishermen at sunset in Lake Cresent in Olympic National Park

Night Fishing

Two fishermen heading out onto Lake Crescent as the sun sets. I was standing on the dock of the Lake Crescent Lodge, a beautiful and historic lodge on the shores of the lake. We spent several days there as our base point for visiting the various points of the park.

Quinalt Rain Forest

Don't You (Forget About Me)

Olympic National Park is home to several rain forests with the Hoh being the most famous and visited. And with good reason, the Hoh hosts two short loop trails that take you past massive Sitka spruce and western hemlock hundreds of feet tall, moss-draped maples, plus firs, cedars, alders, and cottonwood. If you’re visiting the park and have only a little time, I’d recommend the Hoh Rain Forest and Hurricane Ridge as two must-visit sites, both boasting easy access and short hikes that capture the unique nature of the park.

But if you have more time, wander around the less visited parts of the park like the Quinalt Rain Forest. Both times I’ve visited, the Quinalt proved a quiet respite from the heavy crowds in the Hoh. On my latest trip, I only had a couple of hours before dark so I stopped off for a short hike on the Maple Glade Loop and Kestner Homestead Trails. It rained steadily but I had a great time in the forest, it hadn’t rained at all during our first visit so I was happy to finally get rain in the rain forest!

Most of the water levels were low at this time of the year, but some downed trees had dammed up the creek. Most of the trees aren’t as large on these short loops as the trails in the Hoh, but I like the moss-draped trees amidst the gentle creek.

Forks

During the fall of 2008 I stayed a couple of nights in the little town of Forks while hiking in the Quinalt and Hoh Rain Forests. On my drive into town, I kept seeing signs like "Welcome Twilight Fans" but I didn't know what Twilight was. When I checked into the hotel, the friendly woman behind the desk clued me into the wildly popular books.

I had a great time hiking in the rain forests with lovely scenes like these moss-draped trees in the Quinalt, so I decided to read the first book in the series even though I'm not exactly the target demographic — I am not now, nor have I ever been, a teenage girl.

Abandoned

I was troubled that the windows of the moving van were left rolled down, it was pouring and rain was getting inside the truck. On the plus side, the tree growing in the middle of the cabin was getting watered.

The funny thing is that I never photograph things like this. Four years ago when we first saw this abandoned Chevrolet at the end of the Kestner Homestead Trail in the Quinalt Rain Forest, I didn’t take a single picture. But this time I felt the desire pretty strongly, so I followed my muse despite the steady rain. I do wish I had framed it a little more loosely but otherwise like the contrast of the smiling truck face with the sadness of the decay, as well as the reds and oranges and greens.

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Self-portrait in the Quinalt Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

Ho! Tom Bombadil! Tom Bombadillo!

One word of caution regarding the Quinalt Rain Forest: it might be tempting to huddle inside one of the massive trees to shield yourself from the rain, but do so at your peril. If a tree should grab hold, no mysterious nature-sprite will answer your summons, you’re on your own. Fortunately for me, for reasons unknown the tree seemed to expect someone half my size and I took advantage of its confusion to make my escape.

A large hole in a tree in the Quinalt Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

Tree Cave

The elevation varies dramatically in the park from the ocean in the west to the Olympic Range in the east, so when you see a large hole at the base of a tree, you can never be quite sure what might live there, be it yeti or sasquatch. Given that this tree cave was near sea level in the Quinalt Rain Forest, it was almost certainly inhabited by sasquatch.

Sol Duc Falls

Rainbow

Sol Duc Falls splits into three arms that plunge to the stream bed below. Since the falls were partially bathed in blinding sunlight, I focused instead on just the top of one of the arms, which sat amongst lush greenery and a gorgeous rainbow, both owing their life to the mist that continually drifts from the falls.

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