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My Quinault Valley, Washington Trip

Beautiful view while being attack by mosquitos

With 4 days off, I decided to take a trip into the Olympic Mountains for some everyday photography and relaxation. Originally the trip was supposed to last 3 days/2 nights, it ended up being 2 days/1 night. My goal was to sleep in my car, very comfortably I might add, but I needed electricity to make my trip enjoyable. I need to recharge my batteries, play around with photos and watch movies on my laptop. Unfortunately, I was without electricity, because I needed some equipment that I didn’t have to connect to an RV connection. I learned a valuable lesson from that experience.

Beautiful green view throughout the trails southeast of the Quinault Lake

My original plan was to spend one day in the Quinault Valley, one day in the Hoh Rain Forest and one day near Lake Crescent. When my trip was shortened with one battery left on my camera and no entertainment at night, I only spent a couple of hours in the Hoh rain forest. I took a few great photos at the Hoh Rain Forest, which I will post in another article.

The root formations of several of the large trees are stunning to look at

After setting camp in my car just 100′ away from the largest Sitka Spruce tree in the world, I quickly hit the trails with my camera. I started early, so it was peaceful being alone. I knew the trails that I was taking had a few creeks, so I was on the look out for some nice falls.

The forest was an endless graveyard of trees

At the beginning of my walk through the trail, something stood out that I didn’t see in pictures I found on the internet. So many fallen trees! There were parts of the Quinault Rain Forest that was destroyed by hurricane winds in 2007, which I later found out from the owner of the Quinault Mercantile Snack Bar, Chuck Coble [who was cool to talk to]. The photo above was taken near Gatton Creek Falls. Behind me I was walking into much more dense land with vegetation and the works.

Fallen trees I climbed down to take pictures of the waterfalls

In the photo marked [1], you see a set of downed trees that have fallen into the Cascade Creek. You see two trees pointing down towards the [1], and I climbed down the third one in the middle of the two that you can’t see in the picture. At the top of the picture, you see fence posts, which is the trail. I had my picture taken by tourists while sitting on the waterfall eating lunch. I had to study the trees before climbing down, to make sure I didn’t kill myself. It ended up being a very safe climb down.

Cascade Creek Falls

I took several shots of the Cascade Creek waterfalls, since it was my favorite of the day. The picture above shows the bottom half of the falls. It may be small, but I’m still a fan of any waterfall, big or small.

Endless tall trees

I walked just under 4 miles of trails and 3 miles back on the main road. I was exhausted at the end of the day, but it was a great feeling to know I was going to sleep like a baby that night.

Fallen Trees - Gatton Creek

More endless tall trees - overexposed to view the tree's detail

Looking up at the sizes of these tree was awesome. It was also good to see those trees that survived the hurricane winds too.

Gatton Creek Falls

Gatton Creek had a strong flow of water, and I almost left the trail to walk up it. I wanted to see if I could photograph more falls from the creek. Before I knew I didn’t have electricity at the camp site, the plan was to explore some of the creeks the next day, leaving the trails completely.

Folks, don't dress like this at home, I'm a professional.

On these type of trips, I’m prepared to protect myself to a certain extent. If you noticed the self portrait above, you could see what I was wearing. What is hard to see to my right was the bad-ass machete with a 3′ blade, which I could cut down small trees with [seriously]. To my left in the picture, was a nice “Rambo” style knife with a 12″ blade. If you notice too, I’m not listening to my iPod either. When you’re in the wild, you have to be aware of your surroundings, so you need to hear everything around you. Even if you’re in a National Park. You gotta love my sexy legs sporting my waterproof hiking boots too. They were the best purchase I’ve ever made, considering the stuff I climb!

I plan to revisit the Quinault Rain Forest again, after I get my new camera, the Sony a900. I plan to upload a few other pictures to Flickr that I didn’t post here. so don’t forget to visit my Flickr photostream.

Photography