I’ve just discovered the WordPress Lens Artist Photo Challenge. Tina Schell, whose blog is called Travels and Trifles, came up with this week’s theme, “Big is Beautiful”.
How appropriate that I found it this week, I can’t help but think, as big is beautiful has defined my life in many ways.
For one thing, I’m a big girl. I keep telling myself big is beautiful, but I don’t always believe it.
More importantly though, big is beautiful has defined my life geographically, as a rambling ranger, for many years. After all, I live in Alaska, the biggest state in the Union.
Maybe vast is a better word than big to define Alaska.
I even worked for a few years in Denali National Park, home to the biggest mountain in North America.
Denali
I live in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the biggest national park in the U.S. by far. It’s the size of Switzerland with Yellowstone and Yosemite thrown in.
Hiking in the Wrangells
My favorite geologic feature in this fabulous park is the Stairway Icefall, one of the tallest icefalls in North America, if not the world. It rises 7,000 feet in under 2 miles.
The view of Stairway Icefall from my front yard – I’m a lucky girl.
I work in the “ghost town” of Kennecott. The Kennecott Mill just may be the tallest wooden building in North America. It’s big.
The Kennecott Mill, is a big, TALL building
I spent 8 winters as a ranger in Death Valley National Park. At 3.2 million acres, it is the largest national park in the contiguous United States.
Don’t let the name scare you, Death Valley is big and beautiful. Just don’t go in the summer!
Currently I’m spending time in the Pacific Northwest, home to big trees.
Old Growth Maple
The place where I’m staying is only a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean, the biggest of them all!
It’s magical. Wizards live here – maybe sasquatch, too – or is that just an apparition, the shape of a moss-covered stump mimicking a man – worn by the true spirit of the forest? There are definitely giants.
Creepy kinda tree
Some of the giants are trees. Tall, ancient, forest kings – spruce, cedar, hemlock and fir. I scarcely notice the conifers, though. What strikes me are the maples.
They’re not the prettiest trees. Although there are some giants, they’re not nearly as big as the biggest evergreens. Their leaves are scraggly, too. Bigleaf Maple leaves don’t age gracefully.
Some tree species change color as if they’re just embracing a new fashion trend for the season, donning brilliant colors while the leaves stay bright and supple, orange, gold or red even as they hit the ground. Not the Bigleaf Maple. Some leaves are lovely and golden, but most of their leaves are turning brown and raggedy while still attached to the branch. Very few still have color as they fall.
One leaf was still mostly golden.
But they’re the styliest trees around,the fashionistas of the forest – just check out their threads!
Massive maples flaunt fleece, draped in velvet fringed robes, shimmering curtains of moss. and fern accents. There are more things growing on their trunks than on the forest floor!
How can it possibly be so green?It’s the rain. Olympic’s rain forest gets 12 to 14 feet of rain a year.
Fringes and fleece, Olympic rain forest
Compare that to the Colorado Rockies’ 12 to 14 inches! It’s not always torrential deluges, either. it’s more subtle.
You don’t feel it at first, this soft mist, but the air is completely saturated. In 2 minutes flat you’re completely drenched, and you didn’t even realize it was really raining. If a wisp of breeze finds its way through the trees, you’ll feel the fresh spray you might feel when standing at the base of a waterfall in the Rockies or Sierras. It’s wet here.
Olympic National Park, rain forest
Everything is so green, so fecund, so alive.Every centimeter of every surface is covered, bursting with life, growing. It’s not just the plants. The rivers run with salmon. The forest supports a lot of wildlife, but you may not see it through the trees.
You’ll see coons and deer and bunnies. There are flying squirrels.There are some great mega fauna that you might catch a glimpse of if you’re fortunate. Bears, cougars. LOTS of cougars. And Roosevelt Elk, a super-sized subspecies, bigger than the elk in the Rockies. Here be giants, as I said before.
Close call
One afternoon I went to the Hoh rain forest. I stopped by a trail to the river. I thought I might take it – it wasn’t a very long trail – but looking at the time, I decided to do it later so I could get to the Visitor Center while it was open.
I ended up on another trail that day, but came back the next day to the river trail. There was a new sign posted, one that hadn’t been there the day before.
Seems like I had missed a major wildlife event by blowing off that hike the day before. I really, really want to see a cougar. But 5 at once on a kill? That would be a bit intense! This is one hike I decided would have to wait for another visit. Bring your bear spray when hiking in the Olympics, even short hikes.
The road to the Hoh rain forest
There are many ways to access the Olympic rain forest. Just north of Hoquiam is the Quinault Rain Forest. There’s a loop drive around the lake that will take you to some beautiful, easily accessible waterfalls. The road on the north side is a bit sketchy, though…one lane gravel on the side of a ridge with a steep drop to the lake. There are not enough pullovers and too many blind curves. Leads to a scary situation when that big Ram Charger coming the other way refuses to back up. Stick to the southern road for safer driving and more waterfalls. Travel deeper into the woods for camping or backpacking.
Hoh Rain Forest
The largest Sitka Spruce in the country is on that loop, although not on NPS land. It’s a big tree, but I wasn’t that impressed. I had seen too many other spruce just a little farther north in the park that were very nearly as big, and growing in groves of monster trees. The old growth forest protected by the park was much more impressive than this one spruce standing all alone.
Hoh River
Take the Hoh Road just south of Forks to see some of the best rain forest in the park. There’s a Visitor Center and campground. If you have a Washington State Discover pass, you can camp for free just a few miles away. There is river access, day hiking, and access to some of the best backpacking trails Olympic has to offer.
Also near Forks is the Bogachiel Road. It leads to a trail that follows the Bogachiel River. The road to the trailhead is on Forest Service land, so be aware that there could be active lumbering operations in progress on this approach.
Sol Duc Campground
Another way into the rain forest is the Sol Duc Hot Springs Road between Forks and Port Angeles. This is a dark, primeval forest. There’s camping and lodging associated with the developed hot spring here. You can get a discount on the hot springs if you just go in the evening. There’s a warm pool and a cool (swimming) pool. The cool pool was too cool when I visited. You can hike to a great waterfall right from the campground, and also access Olympic’s backcountry trail system from here.
There are a lot of other access points to the rain forest, including patches of rain forest on Olympic’s coastal beach strip. Oh yeah, the beaches. They’re fabulous, too, but that’s another (upcoming) post.
The Olympic rain forest is an enchanted woods. Put it on your bucket list. Get lost in the moss. You won’t regret it.
Fall is my favorite season in Alaska. All of the color and none of the mosquitoes! This fall I took a few little trips up north, trying to catch the colors on the tundra.
Finger Rock, Dalton Highway
My timing was not the best. We had a late spring this year, which led to a late fall. I expected a lot more color way up north on the Haul Road than I actually found there. But there were bits and pieces.
I had the same problem when I drove the Denali Highway Labor Day weekend. You know when you mix green and red when drawing or painting and get a muddy brown hue? That’s pretty much what I found in the Tangle Lakes area. In other years, I’ve come through around Labor Day and the colors were peaking or past the peak. Global climate change or just an off year? Things got better after I crossed the Susitna River.
Denali Highway
Continuing north to Denali National Park, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The aspens had not even begun to turn! The tundra was the same muddy mixture of green turning red that I’d found in the Tangle Lakes area. What a disappointment! Most years the colors start by mid-August in Denali.
There WERE occasional spots of brilliance on this trip, but not a lot.
Aspens in Chugach National Forest
I even drove over Hatcher Pass, only to find more of the same. Not the most colorful Alaskan autumn I’ve ever seen.
Another challenge on these trips was the weather. It was the rainiest August I think I’ve ever experienced, raining practically every day for the entire month.
September was a different story. It was one of the most fabulous Septembers I’ve ever had the joy to experience in McCarthy. Sunshine nearly every day. It was brilliant!
Gilahina Trestle
I had to stay close to home for most of the month, so instead of the brilliant reds and oranges of the tundra, this year was all about the golden hues of aspens, willow and cottonwoods in the lower elevations. I had to turn to fireweed and roses for my red and orange fix.
Fall rose leaves
The leaves have fallen now. Alaskans have to look to the sky for their color fix now, to the brilliant hues of the aurora. But I’m following the fall. I’m now in the Pacific Northwest, where autumn is just beginning. Lucky girl, I get to do it all over again!
