Staying at the Bunkhouse

Goin' to Seattle early tomorrow to see Avatar on a big screen IMAX theater, can't talk.

These are pictures of the bunkhouse at Kalaloch.

The video at the bottom is of a herd of elk.

Whiskey Bend

The SUPERBOWL is today!! What a wonderful match up too, eh? My head says Colts, my heart says Saints. Either way I think it'll be a dandy.

And sorry about last week, I just didn't have much to show you... and since I've been told by multiple people that I "write too much", I didn't think a story from a day in the life would be very appealing. Luckily, I've got a new batch of photos ready for this week from a little trip I took in to the park. The weather is starting to turn 'round these parts, sometimes even hitting 50 degrees. If that holds up (I'm not sure what the groundhog said this year), I'll be exploring around the park more and more.

Now, before you dive in to the photos I must admit that two weeks ago I flat out lied to you. I told everybody that the bumps on the trees at Kalaloch came from the infection of an insect. Not true. I'm not sure where I got that, but I vetted my information and discovered that the giant tumors are actually the result of uncontrolled cell division following some type of injury to the tree (usually caused by the wind, especially near the coast). Its an evolutionary reaction that puts the trees in a better position to survive after frequent storms, outlasting the weaker versions of themselves. There, my conscience is clean.

Yesterday I went to the Elwha region of the park (basically all the trails within the drainage basin of the Elwha River) to hike down Whiskey Bend to a set of rapids that fly through a rock formation called Goblin's Gate. Here's me just hangin' out havin' a great time by the overlook. Mom, you'll be happy to know that to get this shot I used my one of a kind portable tripod, which is awesome by the way.

What a wonderful way to show the basic geographical principle that it gets colder as you rise in elevation. The bottom portion where the snow starts is known as the "snow line", and is invariably 32º F.

We've started to do some trail work around the park, and the next two shots are perfect examples of what exactly we do. This first one shows a tree trunk that was originally stretched out across the trail, and now is chainsawed and rolled off. And the second shows a water drainage trail feature that we typically put in places that pool up rain.

It just drips with earthy tones.

A situation that would take some serious thinking about. This is a fork in the road with a giant tree stuck across both directions. Obviously we, nor Olympic's trail crew has been through yet...

Goblin's Gate... you can get a better idea for how it all flows and how powerful the Elwha can be through the video two slots down.

Turn you volume down...



How in the world...?

National Geographic, right? Nope... Mom, its the tripod.

I dare you to walk across...

How many trees can be in one place, seriously.

And how the heck did this rock get embedded in this tree? I mean, what is going on around here?

So, I was walking back to my truck when all of a sudden this little rodent starts to harass me. I'm not kidding, watch the video below, he kept chirping at me until I left. What's with that? I feel like Alice in Wonderland.