Olympic
Olympic National Park (Washington State, USA) is notable for the variety of landscapes that it includes: mountains (Olympic range), forests (including temperate rain forest), and Pacific Ocean shore. Each of these habitats includes scenes of beauty and wonder, and having all three packed within a relatively small geographical area produces a rich and diverse park. Though a few shore pictures were included in previous projects, I wanted to make a single collection that highlights the variety of beauty contained within this wonderful park.
Mountains
Though I usually try to avoid manmade objects in landscape photography, the S shape of the road leading to Hurricane Ridge was irresistable.
Lupines brighten a rainy day.
Shortly after the melting snow exposes the ground, small alpine wildflowers (spreading phlox and Cascade desert parsley in this picture) bloom on Hurricane Ridge.
Clouds roll in over Hurricane Ridge.
Snow gradually relinquishes its hold over Hurricane Ridge.
Forest
Sol Duc Falls
Arriving early at Lake Crescent, I sat by the calm water and watched the sunrise.
Ripples radiate through the still water of Lake Crescent as the rising sun's rays illuminate the distant hills.
A big leaf maple in the Hoh Rainforest is clothed in epiphytic moss. I found the rainforest to be extremely challenging to photograph due to the difficulty of isolating a subject in the sea of unrelenting green and the chaos of growth. My solution here was to use somewhat eccentric processing.
Ferns and thimbleberries surrounding a small stream created a micro-landscape subject that caught my eye.
A small stream makes its way toward Lake Crescent.
An isolated lady fern at the Salmon Cascades on the Sol Duc River.
Western Swordfern
Shore
A boardwalk made it possible to walk through the marshy forest to the shore at Ozette (North Sand Point Trail).
Rialto Beach (near Hole-in-the-Wall) at sunset.
False lily-of-the-valley at Rialto Beach.
Massive pieces of driftwood wash up on the beach, creating temporary sculptures on the sand.
Ferns and red alder trees mark the edge of the forest and the beginning of the beach at Rialto.
Like the fins of leviathan sharks, sea stacks dramatically accent the ocean's edge near Hole-in-the-Wall.
Though this westward facing beach on the Pacific shore is particularly suited for evening and sunset photography, I decided to explore the beach at sunrise and was delighted to find a full moon setting over St. James Island. A more prepared photographer would have consulted The Photographer's Ephemeris app and known to show up; I was just lucky.
The sun descends behind sea stacks at Hole-in-the-Wall. (The reason for the name of this place can be seen at the far right of the picture.)
A big starfish in a little pond. At low tide, rocks with tidal pools are exposed, revealing amazingly colorful creatures. At least that used to be the case. Since 2014, a devastating epidemic in has wiped out the local sea star population.
On this day at Rialto Beach, the clouds seemed like a gigantic bird of prey swooping toward the shore.
Every time I visit Rialto Beach, I make it a point to hike to the sea stacks near Hole-in-the-Wall and watch the sunset.
