WASHINGTON TRAILS ASSOCIATION LINK FOR HIKE INFORMATION:
For Christmas, Tim's Mom treated us to a night at the Bears Lair Bed and Breakfast , which was absolutely lovely, and the best nights sleep of my entire life. One night was not enough, we will be back! We decided to take a few side trips and fit in a hike in the Olympic National Forest, we rented a Olympic Forest hiking book from our local library and chose from there.
We didn't see anyone else on the forest road, parking lot, or trail the entire time! Most likely the South Fork Skokomish River is frequently visited by fisherman, and perhaps at closer access points, but the river itself was just beautiful. The hike starts out somewhat difficult, climbing what seems like straight up for the first half mile or so, but from there it traverses across and down a canyon wall to the river. From there the trail follows the river for several miles, this is very old growth, ancient forest, and it's quite humbling to be in the presence of some of these glorious monsters!
Apparently it is not uncommon to see elk near the river, and cougar sightings have been on the increase lately as well. We didn't see any elk or cougars, but were surprisingly graced with the presence of a Northern Pygmy Owl. One of my favorite hiking moments thus far!
 |
| The Northern Pygmy Owl that spoiled us with its quality time. What a treat it was to spend time with this little guy (or gal?), and quite rare to spot them so close! (My apologies for the cell phone photo) |
 |
| These gorgeous moss covered trees were everywhere, I felt like we were walking through an Edward Gorey book. |
 |
| South Fork Skokomish, "Cougar Sightings" flyer. |
No comments:
Post a Comment