Copyright 2019, CABS for Reflections From the Fence
August 17, 2019
We have some sun. We are off to the park - -
After shaking the night time Zzz factors off, we head for Hurricane Ridge, we do not stop at the Visitors Center, Man has decided to go for the end goal first, due to weekend and limited parking. We are going straight up to the top.
Our senior pass gets us out of the line of traffic at the gate. Ya us old peeps!
Got to the top. What a drive. We got 7.5 MPG on the way up. It was steep, epic. GPS went down in altitude while we went up. I have a iPhone photo that shows that at 2938 feet (per MyAltitude app) the GPS was reading 1222 feet.
Hikers walking along the ridge. (Lots of Sony III zoom.)
One of our first views as we near the top. The parking lot at the top is at about 5,200 foot elevation.
Parked. Found a ranger led walk. She was good! What a fun learning event. She explained the climate, the animals, the winter weather, and so much more so well. She covered in detail that was educational and delightful how the trees deal with the winter weather (winds can reach 118 MPH up here) and how the animals deal as well. She ended up with points on what is allowed in National Park or National Forest land. Interesting. There is a difference in what is allowed. Then says these are our lands and we must decide how we want them managed. Including contacting our elected officials.
Two nice purple bloomers. I did not catch the names.
I am really taken with these "bells". They look almost tissue paper thin. So delicate.
Olympic Marmots. First is a one year old youngster.
According to the ranger this is most likely a male. He was good sized (yes, again, thanks to Sony III zoom I have a photo to share, he was quite a bit up the hill.) We actually watched him find his burrow, do a little housecleaning, tossing dirt out with his front paws and climb in. It was fun to see.
Black tailed deer. This guy was not too shy. (The red stuff is another park visitor staying back, but watching intently.)
Back to The Estate had lunch. Went in Center, watched movie.
The the trip down. At the limits of my comfort zones. Ugh. No shoulder, drop off is straight down. Hundreds of feet - DOWN. Ugh. Down in 2nd gear.
The reds and yellows along the road side. Pretty. Don't look down tho, cause, it is straight down after those flowers.
We pulled off in a wide spot (designated to let traffic by), and to look, I found a pretty flower.
Three black tailed deer having a snack along the road.
One decided it was ok to pose. Sorta. LOL Believe me, it was more interested in eating. We always slow down as much as we can, for photos of course, but, also so we are not moving along if they decide to dart out in front of us, and yes, it does happen.
After we left this part of the park we headed west, stopped at a Casino for gas and a burger. Good price for gas, great burger.
We kept driving west till we got to Lake Crescent and Marymere falls. The hike to the falls was somewhere around 2 miles (round trip) and had an elevation gain between 300 and 400 feet depending on the source of your information. We sure met some nice people along the way. We stopped where the signs along the road indicated this is where to start the hike to falls. However, the signage sucked. A lady with family overheard us and knew where the trail head was. She sent her son running after us to let us know. Later on trail we ran into the family again and we thanked her again and had a totally delightful talk with her. She wore a hijab.
The trail starts off by sending us under the 101 via a viaduct.
I agree with this lady's apparent opinion, yes, that is ONE BIG ole tree.
This is part of the rain forest, and there are giant Douglas Firs and several other kinds of trees, such as Sitka spruce trees, western hemlock and big leaf maples.
This bridge is part of the trail, this photo struck me as almost fairy tale like.
Look at the size of those ferns, almost come up to Man's shoulder - -
There is the same bridge - - it's a log, split, and quite long. Yes, I went across it.
After some more "up hill" climbing, here is our first glance/view of the falls.
If you look hard, you can see there is a young man down near the falls, you can see how tall this falls is. I found a reference that stated it was 90 feet tall.
Man headed down, look at that switchback. Man wanted this photo, so, of course, I took it. It was about here that a nice young man asked me if I needed help on a particular rough section (a long step, well over 10 inches drop, I was moving slowly and carefully). I was OK, but, it was so very kind of him to ask. I met his wife down the trail a bit. She had chemo day before. Has MS. Now I know why he was so in tune to my situation. He lives with it daily.
We met another couple, quite young, who encouraged us to keep using our bodies, he looked to be a weightlifter, she a model. They were so enthusiastic in their encouragement.
We noticed this tree at the end of our hike, even tho we had passed it at the beginning. The backlit situation really made it stand out. It was huge, gorgeous.
A glance of Lake Crescent, the lake is 624 feet deep at one point. Depending on the light, you can really see a deep, deep teal color. Stunning.
Today was all about the encounters with amazing, special people, different ages, talents, beliefs, but all of whom left enduring marks on our souls. Olympia. You may be magical. You brought together in one place, at one time people of varying ages, religions, health issues and allowed us to all bond. It was amazing!
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