Wildflower on

Mount Zion.

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In need of some time in the mountains, I made a quick trip into the Olympics a couple of weekends ago to hike to the summit of Mt Zion. I left the trail head around 10 am and summited in about an hour. The views from the top were almost entirely clouded out (not quite so on the way up) but I found some calypso orchids along the trail and glacier lily at the summit. The orchid more than made up for the missed panoramic. The snow was almost completely gone, only a couple of spotty patches remained. The trail was in quite excellent condition – and well used – I was not the only one making the trip.

Marmot Pass, sunrise, mountains.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

With clear weather and field reports of wildflowers in bloom, a friend and I decided to backpack up to Marmot Pass in the Olympics and spend some time shooting photos.

marmot pass

The plan was to hike to Camp Mystery, setup camp and then hike a bit further up to Marmot Pass to catch the sunset over the Olympics. So, under bright skies and in very warm weather we started up the mountain. The first couple miles of the hike hug the Big Quilcene River as the trail winds through the deep green PNW forest.

Heather Park Trail, an enchanted forest and views.

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Series: Sunset > Sunrise > Heather Park

After an early morning of shooting the sunrise I wanted to get up into the mountains and chose the Heather Park Trail as my access point because I needed something near the campsite and so I could get up, down and home for dinner.

trail through the forest

The trail starts through the typical NW forest though this one was both younger and lacking the undergrowth typical of the woods with which I’m most familiar.

Sunset, flowers and the Olympic Mountains.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Series: Sunset > Sunrise > Heather Park

This will be the first in a short series of posts displaying some of the photos I took on a recent camping and hiking overnight to Olympic National Park. I went with a loose group of Mountaineers to capture the abundant wildflowers in bloom and marvel at the sun’s dramatic visual displays on the mountains.

The first evening we headed up to Hurricane Ridge and Hurricane Hill to shoot the sunset. The sun was really bright and strong in the early evening as the first couple of photos easily demonstrate but gradually gave way to pink and orange.