More Waterfalls! Yesterday was so much fun, I was now consulting the
Olympic Peninsula Waterfall Trail to find more.
Tuesday we drove to the Elwha Valley area of ONP to see Madison Falls which was just a short walk from the parking lot in a pretty meadow. Birds were singing in the trees and snow-capped Olympic Range framed our view to the south.
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| Elwha River near Madison Falls |
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| The road into the Elwha area of Olympic National Park |
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| A White-crowned Sparrow with some nesting material |
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| Bleeding hearts in the wild |
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| Madison Falls |
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| Susan and Mike at Madison Falls |
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| Trillium growing near Madison Falls |
Further up Olympic Hot Springs Road the area was closed because of the
ongoing dam removal project. We took Whiskey Bend Road a bit past the unattractive former Glines Canyon Dam site which was hidden by some sort of flimsy material covering the fencing. Hopefully the area will recover soon, and salmon will return to the Elwha.
From here we went back out to Hwy 101 and stopped briefly to take the short walk to the viewpoint to see the remains of the
Elwha Dam.
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| Forget-me-nots in bloom |
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| Elwha Dam at start of removal (Wikimedia Commons photo) |
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| Former site of the Elwha Dam |
Later in the afternoon we drove through the
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe reservation to visit the Elwha River estuary and the underused Warrior Trail. The area wasn't as productive for birdwatching as we had hoped, but we did spot a Sooty Grouse on the roadside in a residential area on our way out. And a rusting old truck called for a short photo shoot.
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| The Elwha River estuary emptying into the Salish Sea |
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| Mike on the Warrior Path |
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| Sooty Grouse |
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| An old Chevy truck along the road |
We ended our day looking around in the Hurricane Ridge area at dusk.
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| View of Olympic Range from Hurricane Ridge Road |
Really a nice series Mike & Susan.
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