grayowlimages.com - Olympic National Park - June

Olympic National Park - June > Olympic National Park

The 'Home' page gives a bit of an overview about the Olympic National Park and the weather conditions when I shot these gallery images. In addition to trying to capture the essence of the park, I wanted to try to shoot some of the tall waterfalls and as much as possible, the beauty and stature of the old growth forest that is protected because it is in the Park. As an aside, as I drove between the sections of the park, it was easy to see the stark contrast between these protected forests and the broad sections of the surrounding National Forest that have been 'harvested' for lumber. The park also has lots of water features as the Olympic Peninsula is one of the rainiest parts of the country; you'll see lots of water and evidence of water throughout the gallery. Photographically, I did considerable work with a 45 mm Tilt/Shift lens that I had rented for the trip. It is great for doing panoramas, both horizontal and especially vertical. (No other type of lens can accurately portray very tall subjects up close without keystoning.) There are 15 representative images in the gallery. To see a slideshow of this gallery, click on the thumbnail image on this page. When watching the slideshow, follow the arrows or click on a slideshow image to return to the thumbnail view.

Sol Duc Drainage

The Sol Duc Falls is a popular, relatively easy place to hike into, a distance of about 2 miles round trip and pretty flat. As I hiked in, I came to this drainage, which according to the ranger I spoke with, doesn't have a name. The photo conditions were near perfect, no wind, light mist and no sun. I spent a good hour here and shot at least 70 images. This one is a 3 shot vertical panorama with the lens mounted horizontally on the camera. It has been printed at 30 x 50 inches and shows great detail.
Sol Duc Drainage - Detail

This image is a small section of the preceding picture, one of my 70 images at that location. The milky appearance of the moving water comes from a very slow shutter speed, in this case, 1 second, of course, on a tripod.
Hall of Mosses

There are three entry points into the deep rainforest. The Queets River and Lake Quinault entries are quite a drive and time didn't permit getting to them on this trip. The nearest entry point and the one I spent lots of time at is along the Hoh River where there are several short nature trails and a visitor center. This image is called the Hall of Mosses and is near the Hoh Visitor Center. It is a 4 shot panorama stitched into a single image in Photoshop.
Tall Trees

This shot is probably typical of the Olympic Peninsula forest that isn't specifically rainforest. Note there is still lots of rain, moss and ferns. I love the tall trees and subtle curve of the footpath.
Threesome

The heavy moss coverage says rainforest. This image caught my attention because of the alignment of the trees. This scene is on the trail to Marymere Falls.
Old Growth

These are among the largest trees that I saw. Although not visible here, there was at one time, probably, hundreds of years ago a 'Nurse' log that had fallen and on which all of these big ones grew through the decades. You can tell by the way the root structures are so far above ground.
Symmetry

The relatively even spacing of the moss draped branches on this old snag suggest to me that the tree was a conifer. Clearly, we're still in the rainforest section of the park.
Salmon Cascade

This little waterfall and rapids is on the road into the Sol Duc region. The name comes from the fact this is a location where salmon come back to spawn in season. This is a three shot panorama.
Sol Duc Falls

There are several interesting aspects to this location. First, it is a tough waterfall to photograph because it is large and you are very close to it so composition is difficult. This shot was made with a wide angle lens, 20 mm on a D300; I like the left side framing with the tree leaning over the water upstream. Note also the glacial melt blue water color as the river separates temporarily into 4 channels, makes a 90º turn then plunges steeply before heading off downstream. A powerful scene.
Elwha River

Another of the North Side entry points to the park is along the Elwha River. The road in leads to Lake Mills and to several backcountry trailheads, is pretty flat and parallels the River. Because of proximity and the glacial blue color, I suspect that the river is fed by melting of the Carrie Glacier.
Madison Falls

This waterfall is probably about 100' tall and requires only a short walk on flat terrain. To get a close-up of the falls such as this required a specialized lens like the 45 mm tilt/shift lens that I rented for this trip. The result is a 3 shot vertical panorama that includes all of the falls. Unfortunately, the horizontal orientation of computer monitors and their size makes display of a tall vertical image like this somewhat unsatisfying as much of the detail is lost. Hopefully, you get some sense of the place.
Stumped

Here is an examples of how really bad weather can make for a very nice image. This shot was made while it was raining, foggy and quite windy on Rialto Beach. The rich red and brown saturated colors in the stump are brought out by the rain; when this stump is dry, the color is a bland bleached gray; not very interesting.
Second Beach

I had hiked out to Second Beach late in the day, waiting for a great sunset. When I arrived about an hour before sunset, this colorful scene with deep late day shadows was waiting. I am thinking of cropping it from the right to make it square? Any opinions?
Second Beach Sunset

This is the sunset that I was looking for and mentioned in the earlier description. It was worth the hike. I love the colors, the wave action and the silhouetted trees on the offshore seastack.
Above the Clouds

My hope was for a sunset from the high ground visibility of Hurricane Ridge. As I left Port Angeles, however, it was cloudy. During the drive up Klahhane Ridge the clouds thickened for most of the way. As the summit at the visitor center came into view, the sky magically cleared and the high snow covered peaks were visible everywhere. This image from above the clouds looking back toward Port Angeles is a favorite.