The Olympic Peninsula
 

Made the circle route (>500 miles) last week with my Mom, my sister and SonofV. Perfect day, ferry ride, tunes on the radio, majestic mountains, beautiful beaches. Enjoy the ride with us.

Top: Mt Baker from road to Hurricane Ridge. The dark strip with the hill on the left is Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The water below that is the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The town in the "foreground" is Port Angeles, Washington.

Bottom: Hurricane ridge from road to Hurricane Ridge

BeautaMass !!!!

Wow, that is nice V.

You're a lucky man, V.

That strip between the ocean and the top of the Cascades is beautiful. Olympas gets, what, 150 inches of rain? :confused:

Some regions get >200" of precipitation. Hence, the term "rainforest". It is sublimely beautiful.

http://www.sagarmatha.com/images/2003-WA-Hoh4.jpg

Yes, I was shocked to see Spanish moss way up there. I kept looking for 'gators and pythons.:lol:

I have several pictures I'm in the middle of processing to make them suitable for posting. In the meantime, please enjoy a much more polished panorama from the end of the road than I was able to produce. The picture is ten years old, but it looks much the same. We saw more snow on the peaks than is visible in this shot, but still magnificent.

Hurricane Ridge Panorama courtesy of the National Park Service.

Wow.

My Dad and I passed through that area over Spring Break, but Hurricane Ridge was closed when we went through Port Angeles. I have some nice shots from the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, though:


http://koby.atypedigital.com/offsite/2006/wet_trees.jpg


http://koby.atypedigital.com/offsite/2006/big_trees.jpg

All this beautiful scenery and the Seattle high temp today was 73 and the dewpoint in the low 50s. I'm trying very hard to remember why I left.

You got tired of rusting, dar. :D

A couple of beauties by the side of the road
 

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The view from the top.
 

This is looking southward from the Ranger Station.

NPS
 

As an employee of the National Park Service, I'm glad you enjoyed your park visits. Times are hard for the NPS these days. We appreciate your support. Oh, by the way, our 90th Anniversary was last Friday.:)

From the "Organic Act" of August 25, 1916:

The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purposes of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

Big V THIS is exactly what I was looking for the other day. Pictures of our great pacific northwest They are hard to find online. It is either my dial up or me or a little of both maybe. We are having a beautiful summer here so I was glad for some photos. Even though the photos took forever to load but it was way worth the wait.

Thank You for sharing :)

[edit- fyi ] Our P.N.W. meaning us who live in this region. The pacific northwest is a huge region spanning from Oregon through Canada , British Columbia.