Lake Crescent
As you can tell from the photograph above, it must be summer vacation time. Coming to the Olympic Peninsula in early July is only slightly less nutty than going to the Arctic in early July was. Seems I have a death wish for getting snowed on on my birthday, July 3rd. Yesterday I managed it on Hurricane Ridge, just above Port Angeles, Washington, which is a mile high in elevation. It was actually a balmy 35 degrees, but snowing sideways and sticking, all the same.
Even the ubiquitous blue grouse I had seen the day before all called in sick. I never did see a marmot up there in three days and they are usually everywhere, as well. I visualize marmot and ground squirrel dens as being really cool places with satellite TV and computer games. They only come out when the weather is perfect and stay below from August to snow melt time so they must have something pretty cool down there.
I had one good morning up on Hurricane Ridge on Sunday. I got above the cloud ceiling and it was sunny. Of course that means driving through the clouds on the way up and the fog on that road is a fair bit thick. Hoping you don’t lose the white line on the side of the road or you won’t have any idea where you are thick. I made the mistake of coming down that road in the fog after dark one night. Hey, I was hoping to get above the clouds for a sunset.
Hurricane Ridge
On the sunny morning on Hurricane Ridge I was exploring and photographing some of the deer population up there when a yearling curiously approached me. I must have seemed innocent enough so he came right next to me as he passed. His entire herd of about ten deer followed suit. I was happily surrounded for a while there. No movement I made seemed to bother them, but they startled at any noise from anywhere else. Once I was among them I was no longer a threat. It was really nice to be accepted like that. They can be skittish at other times.
I have noticed before that when I stand behind a tripod I cease to be a human to animals. Last fall a coyote came right up and by me about five feet away. Once beside me he glanced up at me, startled, and ran away. I had a nutria come towards me and once he was too close to focus I said hello and he jumped in the lake. I really didn’t want to be that intimate with a nutria. Too many freaky orange teeth.
On windy and cold Monday morning two of the buck deer on Hurricane Ridge were just up to no good. You know how you can tell when somebody is up to something naughty? These guys were hanging out in the parking lot, eating junk food people spilled out their cars. This is at five am so I am the only human there and I’m not getting out of the car in that cold wind to photograph deer in a parking lot. Maybe they were high on anti-freeze leaked from a leaky radiator, I don’t know. They just strutted around the entire length of the parking lot and had no desire to go feed in the meadow or do anything constructive. It was like watching two teen-aged boys on a Saturday night. Just looking for trouble.
The Bad Boys
Don’t they just look bad? One of the other bucks came over from across the meadow to investigate what they were licking in the parking lot and when they didn’t back off and show him respect he kicked one their little hindies. I took photographs, but they are blurry because it was dark. They both reared up and came together like two wrestlers. I guess they don’t dare butt their velvet horns and damage them.
How Deer Fight When They Don’t Have Antlers
The top photo was from Lake Crescent, about 15 miles west of Port Angeles and a beautiful lake. I highly recommend the lodge there as a very romantic place to stay. I booked too late and couldn’t get a room there this trip, but spent an evening around the lodge and surrounding area, anyway. I was hoping to reproduce a fabulous sunset photograph I took ten years ago on film from in front of the lodge. Not even close to a sunset this trip so far.
James Island, La Push, WA
The closest so far was last night on Rialto Beach outside of Forks, Washington. Then a big black cloud came along the horizon and stubbornly sat there. It is supposed to clear off for the rest of the week so there could be a sunset at Rialto Beach tonight.
I don’t mind rain. I live in Oregon so that works out well. But yesterday in the Sol Duc River Valley it started kind of wearing on me. Photographing the falls there requires a mile and half hike and the downpours yesterday were enough to discourage any desire I might have had. Sol Duc is kind of awkwardly placed in between locations and I just hit it as I’m going through so the chance of getting good light to shoot the falls is pretty low. You can stay there overnight, camping or in the lodge, but it is not that great of a falls to shoot and has been done…and done and done. It is one of those weird falls that you photograph from above so not a lot of angles to be had, and most of them require bushwhacking through brush. Sometimes very, very wet brush.
The tide pools at Second Beach were a huge disappointment this morning. I remember them as the best I’d ever seen ten years ago. Not sure what changed. There was an awful lot of sterile sand today. It was a -2.4 tide, too.
All of the images today are straight out of camera since I am on the road with just the lap top so the color correction, etc may be less than perfect.
Decent Exposure 