Because we stopped short of Olympic National Forest, we had to finish the drive up to Quinault first thing in the morning. The first stop was a the USFS / NPS Recreation Information building where we got a map of the immediate area (not so much Olympic National Park as a whole) and some recommendations. I think we told the ranger there we were looking for about 10 miles worth of hikes for the day and she recommended we try climbing Colonel Bob which is a mountain in the National Forrest.
We decided to take that part of her advice, but we mostly ignored the part where she told us to do that first and then do the shorter hikes if we were still up for it. This was mainly because we were already near many of the shorter hikes while the Colonel Bob hike involved driving 20+ minutes or so back the way we had come in and would be leaving at the end of the day.
I think our first hike was the quarter mile walk down to the worlds largest sitka spruce tree, mainly because it was there and we were there so it seemed like we aught go see it.
Second hike was on of the small loops near the ranger station – I think out to Cascade Falls. The falls in this case were overshadowed by the abundance of banana slugs along the trail, which were kind of a theme of the area a source of great entertainment.
Third hike was a 1.1 mile trail out to Irely Lake with about 5-600ft elevation change. I guess we should have clarified at the ranger station before going, but Irely Lake was not really a lake so much as a site where a lake once was. I think this was a relatively recent development as the entire area was in it’s driest year on record for the last 100 years. This also had a big impact on the rain forest hikes, which were unseasonably dry – nice for hiking, not so nice for matching the rain forest expectation of the area.
After Irely Lake we made our way back out of Quinault and headed back toward Aberdeen to find the highly entertaining Donkey Creek Rd. which would take us to the back route up Colonel Bob.
There are two routes up Colonel Bob – the longer route was a 14 mile round trip and left from Quinault. The route we took was an 8 mile round trip. I’m guessing both covered very similar vertical since I don’t think we were driving up a lot of hills when driving from Quinault to the trail head. As is typical for the area, the trail covered a broad range of landscapes from (dry) rain forest through the more shrub lands and into the mostly bare, rocky mountain landscapes. The middle portion of the trail was very overgrown at some points, which was a bit unnerving when the trail was about 1 foot wide and we couldn’t see our feet.
There was a moment of concern when we came across the point where the ‘front’ trail must have met our trail. There were some trail markers in the area (bits of ribbon on trees) but not enough to definitively know which way to turn. It seemed that it made most sense to continue on the path that seemed to be ascending, so that’s what we did. We really should have had a GPS (phones w/o preloaded maps didn’t do much good) or at the very least a more detailed map, because it could have been somewhat easy to lose the trail coming back as well.
We chose correctly and were rewarded at the top of Colonel Bob with a gorgeous view and a geocache… oh, and flying ants. We started up the trail just before 2:00 in the afternoon, the ascent took about 3 hours and the descent almost as long since we were stopping to take pictures more often getting us back to the car just before 8:30.
The timing was just right for catching a glimpse of the full moon through the spruce trees over the dirt road on the back to Aberdeen. Of course, this resulted in bringing the car to a skidding halt, jumping out and standing in the road playing photographer for half an hour. Fortunately, there were only two other people hiking Colonel Bob after us and they did not run me over.
We were tired and not interested in driving a few extra hours to the other side of Olympic National Park, so we returned to the hotel in Aberdeen for pizza and beers.
Quinault Map - we hiked the loop around Cascade falls and Irely Lake which was way off to the East.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/olympic/null/recarea/?recid=47769&actid=119
The hydrangea were incredibly blue and plentiful. We passed bunches along the road on the way into Quinault as well.
The hydrangea were incredibly blue and plentiful. We passed bunches along the road on the way into Quinault as well.
All the trail maps had the "you are here" point completely worn off. Either someone vandalized them, or everyone who passed by decided they needed to very emphatically indicate their current location.
The banana slugs are A) huge (by slug standards) and B) plentiful on the trails in Olympic National Forrest
This is technically a temperate rain forest, but it was not very rainy while we were there.
Banana Slug, moose for scale
The banana slugs are A) huge (by slug standards) and B) plentiful on the trails in Olympic National Forrest
Banana slug - really? Another banana slug? This is starting to seem like an unhealthy obsession.
Taken from the middle of Irely Lake
The lake must not have been very deep even on a wet year, because there were a few trees like this in it.
Frogs made up the majority vertebrate inhabitants of Irely Lake Field
I'm thinking this was a toad and the previous picture was a frog, but not 100% sure.
Green toad - or a really lumpy dehydrated frog.
This guy was not adapted for a non aquatic environment.
World's Largest Sitka Spruce
I thought the decomposition of this trunk was very interesting.
This was a common occurrence with the number of dirt roads we drove down.
These warnings were posted at several trail heads
Colonel Bob trail head... yeah, not actually labeled as the Colonel Bob trail head.
Mt. Rainier from Colonel Bob
We were speculating that this was smoke from a forest fire further northwest in the park.
Colonel Bob Geocache - had a solar charger / battery pack in it, but I had nothing to trade so it remained.
Colonel Bob Panorama
Geographical Marker at the top of Colonel Bob
Norconk at the top of Colonel Bob checking through the geocache prizes
Stuffed animals at the top of Colonel Bob
Flower from the C-Bob trail
This pool looked disgusting, but there was a frog living in it.
This is what the trail to C-Bob looked like for a good portion of the hike and sometimes the footing was questionable where there were washouts
Another of the Colonel Bob trail
These were pretty common and we're pretty sure they're thimbleberries
Indian Paintbrush
The banana slugs were invading the C-Bob trail as well.
I ran off looking for the mulkey shelter but we had no idea how far off the trail it was - probably trotted 1/4 mile out to see if I could find it.
We passed this one the way up and packed up some of it on the way down. Not sure why we carried it down, but it ended up going in a Salvation Army pile.
Moon shot after HDR processing
Moon shot - lots of brightening the shadows on this one
Moon shot - lots of brightening the shadows on this one
Moon shot taken with the Canon - can't push the shadows as much :-( Comparison of this vs. the last shot is really the reason I bought the a6000.
