Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Mount Ellinor

The forecast for today was mostly sunny, but we were mostly in the clouds. Still an enjoyable hike up Mount Ellinor in the southern Olympics.3.2 miles round trip from the upper trailhead, with 2,444 ft of elevation gain. We were happy to see some wildflowers were still in bloom.
View from the parking area as we started our hike.
The first half or so of the trail is going up through the forest.
We found a few ripe blueberries.
The trail is steep!
We stopped at one of the viewpoints on our way up. This would be the only view we had down to Hood Canal on our hike this morning.
The second half of the trail is up though the boulders. Here we saw some patches of wildflowers.
Wildflowers and foggy ridges
A nice meadow of paintbrush, pasqueflower gone to seed and thistle.
Harebells alongside the trail.
Arnica in the fog
young grouse next to the trail
mama grouse up a ways
field of fireweed
We were up on the summit of Mount Ellinor for over 30 minutes by ourselves in the clouds.
No spectacular panoramic views this morning, but still enjoying our hike.
The clouds blew around enough that we had a glimpse of Ellinor Lake below us to the north.
Our best view of nearby Mount Washington today.
Remember to keep your food safe, the chipmunks are very aggressive here.
an eerie landscape 
The fog was disorienting at times, here we are hiking back down the trail, I am looking below. 
some of the beautiful wildflowers we saw along the trail today:

  

 

  

 

 


 

 

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