Friday, August 19, 2022

Grand Valley to Gladys Basin

We drove to the end of Obstruction Point Road in Olympic National Park to hike down to Grand Valley and Gladys Basin, about 9.8 miles round trip with 2,500 ft loss/gain. View of the Olympic Mountains from the parking area.
zoom of Mt Olympus
We were happy to see these paintbrush in bloom up on the ridge.
We found harebells blooming along many portions of our route today.

This rabbit was not shy.

Both pink and white heather were still in bloom.
Gorgeous views on a "cloudy" day! Looking south-southwest from the ridge.


A field brighten with bistort
Bright blue tarns to the northeast from the ridge
More tarns on the east side of the ridge

View looking down into Grand Valley with either Grand Lake or Moose Lake far below.
Hiking down the switchbacks we went through a couple of meadows. Here there were many harebells and yarrow in bloom.
We saw hundreds of gentian blooming in Grand Valley.
Near the stream were grass of parnassus (also bog orchids, monkey flowers, willow-herb and more).
Meadow full of pearly everlasting and orange paintbrush
Grand Lake below, we continued on the trail up to Moose Lake.

Butterfly on arnica, the butterflies were very busy, it was difficult to get any photos of them today.
We took a break near the south end of Moose Lake. 

A field full of small goldenrod and yarrow as we look back down on Moose Lake
One of the small streams that crossed the trail
Another field full of yellow blooms

Looking over towards Gladys Lake
We enjoyed the many areas of wildflowers throughout the trail.

Grand Creek flowing through Gladys Basin
A beautiful tarn in Gladys Basin

We found this lovely spot on rocks off the trail to take our lunch break and enjoy this view.
Enjoying the views of Moose Lake as we returned down Grand Valley.


After hiking back up out of Grand Valley to the ridge, we saw rain falling over Mt Olympus in the distance.
some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today:

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

  

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment