Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: spring, Page: 2

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

03/09/19 - Another March Day in Seattle We spent a second day in Seattle and walked from the UW subway station to Foster Island and on the Arboretum. We are desperate for signs of spring.	The waterway
A long shadow	To Marsh Island by causeway
Coots - There were lots of coots.	On Marsh Island
A sign of spring!	To Foster Island
Another causeway	Back east these would be pyracantha
Witch hazel in bloom	More witch hazel

Keywords: seattle, spring

07/20/18 - Farther Along The Elwha The park service has put in another pair of temporary bridges along Olympic Hot Springs Road, so we took an easy walk all the way up to the Altair bridge. The road is still closed to cars from Madison Falls on, but accessible by foot or bicycle. We crossed the first temporary bridge at the north end of the old campground and continued. The road had been destroyed by the river, and it is still pretty beaten up. The park service has scraped and smoothed it, but clearly doesn't trust it. We made our way to the next new tributary of the Elwha, where the river had carved a pair of passages across the roadway. There were now a pair of bridges in place. We continued on and were soon at the ranger station and construction facility across the way. We continued past the turn off for Whiskey Bend Road and on to the bridge right before the old Altair campground. That was far enough for us. We were just out exploring. It is going to be some time before this area is open to public vehicular traffic. Supposedly, the park service is evaluating an alternate route around the new branch of the Elwha. For now, the temporary bridges let the park service keep up trail maintenance and make it easier for visitors to walk in. Unfortunately, they'll be gone this winter. The Elwha is a wild river now, and no one wants to lose those temporary spans to the winter flood.	Along the road the river has claimed
The new temporary bridge	Still the old wild forest
A view from the Altair bridge	Another view from the Altair bridge
A view from the temporary bridge	A view from the road
Another view from the road	One of our favorite views, and not very far from the parking lot

Keywords: elwha, olympic hot springs, spring, winter

05/27/18 - Hurricane Hill - First Ascent This time we made it to the top of Hurricane Hill. Most of the snow has melted, except for a long stretch between the bench and the "hamper". All sorts of flowers are starting to bloom: glacier lilies, yarrows, violets and avalanche lilies. The lupines are getting ready. Spring is here. We even saw some marmots.	Phirst phlox
Glacier lilies and others	One of the marmots
Another marmot	One of the views
That lake to the north of the peak	More flowers
Grasses in bloom	Yarrow
An assemblage with phlox	An avalanche lily

Keywords: flowers, hurricane hill, marmots, spring

05/25/18 - Elwha River Update We drove out to Madison Falls, the current end of Olympic Hot Springs Road. We took our usual walk along the Elwha, past the relocated mule camp, over the temporary bridge, and down to the latest washout where the Elwha meets the road. The Elwha won, as you can see in the pictures. The park is making the best of the situation. They can't conjure a road from nowhere. Along with many of our favorite trails, there's a park ranger station and work area cut off by the river. There is a temporary trail around the wash out, and while it isn't suitable for cars, it is apparently human and mule friendly. We saw a group of laden mules taking the route. The river is as beautiful as ever, but the trails out of Whiskey Bend and to Olympic Hot Springs are still inaccessible. This will probably be the situation for some time.	You can see two branches of the Elwha crossing the road here.
Elwha versus Road; Elwha wins.	The park service mules in action
The Elwha	Another view of the Elwha
An artfully framed view of the Elwha	White water
Madison Falls, worth the two minute walk	Upper Madison Falls
Snow covered mountains	A last look at the Elwha

Keywords: elwha, olympic hot springs, spring, trails

05/20/18 - Hurricane Hill - First Look Despite the delays on Hurricane Ridge Road, we made our way up to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. There was still a lot of snow, but some of the trail was clear. The sky was blue and the view of the distant mountains was crystalline. Only the bravest plants, or those lucky enough to have an especially warm microclimate, were out and in bloom, but we could see signs of alpine spring. Stay tuned. We'll be back, road construction or not.	Snow on the trail - still passable
More snow on the trail	Someone getting a head start
Melting snow on the mountain	The Olympic Range in its majesty
Another gorgeous view	Paintbrush getting out in front

Keywords: hurricane hill, spring, flowers

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