Hot Springs

Here's my new thing: I'm going to post something every Monday. I know this isn't a Monday, but I just want to say that now, starting next week. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first of which is to make it so that you don't have to check back randomly to see if I posted something. This will give things a certain regularity. Also, I think that by having a post a week, I might be able to make this blog last. Eventually, I'm going to run out of things to show you, especially now that the weather is turning for the worse and apparently won't let up until Spring. One more reason, I get Mondays off, so I can actually put some care in to what I write down.

Now, last weekend I went to the hot springs of the Elwha River Valley with some friends from work. It was about a 20 minute drive to the trail head, and then two miles and change to the campsite from there.




The trees are just stunning here, and when you really get in to the park and down in to the valleys (rather than on a ridge or peak or something), you feel just overwhelmed by them... in a good way, of course. I visited New York City in the summer, and I got the same sort of feeling when I walked the streets of downtown Manhattan.




On the trail up to the campsite. I was the only person wearing shorts.






Some wonderful rock art left alongside the path.


There used to be a road here, but now its just a rudimentary wooden bridge. Ya see, there is sooo much precipitation in the forest here that any type of construction, especially one smack dab in the middle of a drainage, doesn't stand a chance.


Some friends greeting us at our campsite. I really need to figure out how to set my camera for motion shots.


That's mine on the left. The campsites here at Olympic are phenomenal... extremely clean and well maintained. Many of them have a port-a-potty, many of them have bear hangs, and all of them have wide open spots to set up shop.


The bear hang.


Over the bridge and to the hot springs...





OK so here are some shots of the hot springs. They are natural, and reach upwards of 90 degrees. We spent all day here, and met some nice folks while we kicked back. A couple of guys from Seattle were on a weekend trip, a group from near by was happily sipping on Champagne, and many others walked by as we chatted.


There are a bunch of springs, maybe around 10-15, and they all end up in the river...


...in a leisurely, meandering fashion.





I really dig the ferns around here... they are all over the forest floor, and complement the giant trees nicely.




Plenty of mushrooms around here. My crew supervisor, Kelly, has become something of an expert while working in the park, and takes advantage of the 5 mushrooms (or some number like that) that a person can harvest a day.


The whole of us: Me, Kylan from PA, Rebecca from Georgia, Rebecca from Oregon, Callie from Oregon, and Luke from Minnesota.


We got the fire blazin' early, because it got cold quickly. Getting wood took a good bit of time, because most of the park is old growth forest (an uncommon thing these days). What that means is that the land has never been logged, and so the trees are, you guessed it, old. What that means is that there are no low branches on the trees. And finally, what that means is that you sometimes have to travel aways from camp to get burnable stuff.


A dam along the river... there are many here. Oh, those poor salmon.