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| Up a'top Deer Creek Road, Olympic National Park |
For no good reason drove on up to the top of Deer Park Road. It is a lesser known fragment of Olympic National Park. The road is steep, curvy and guaranteed to scare the crap out of anyone with a fear of heights - specially if they hate being able to stare out the car window and see a mile long drop through the pines. Thankfully, I was born, height-fear-free.
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| Mountaintop signage |
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| Tiger Lilies |
Delightful to find the wildflowers are still to be found at these elevations. My favorite was Tiger Lilies. Haven't seen any since visiting Del Norte County in California, a zillion years ago.
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| Indian Paintbrush |
Another gorgeous wildflower was scarlet and yellow Columbines.
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| Harebells |
At the mountain top I spent some time birding, but the little buggers were so fast, and so far off it was all I could do to identify a few chickadees and a crow or three. At times like that, you can appreciate photo targets that are not only close by, but that hold the hell still, like the blue Harebells on the left.
This was my second drive up Deer Park Road. This time at the top, I took a road I haven't noticed on my first visit. Drove up to the very tippy top from which I could view the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge at the Salish Sea's edge, and even the area where my property is could be viewed.
Several other cars were also up on the mountaintop, all sitting and gazing at the scenery.
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The Salish Sea, edged by Dungeness National
Wildlife Refuge, way out there in the distance |
Eventually I headed back down off the mountain. You know I took even more photos of wildflowers on the long drive downhill.
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| Lupines |
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| Penstemons |
It is wonderful having a National Park as an elaborate extension of my own backyard.
