Olympic NP Day 4 - Mountains
Today was our last day at Olympic and we spent it back in the mountains. We learned a couple things today - weather changes fast, you can't predict sunrise or sunset light conditions, lightening storms in the mountains are loud, small clouds turn into big clouds, and it takes far longer to cover four miles with a camera than it does without one.
We hiked a trail called the Grand Valley Trail and the views were definitely grand. We had to cross several snow banks and we walked along a ridge line with a great view of the mountains literally on all sides of us. Every direction you turned - more mountains. I think I took a photo of the same mountains every ten feet as the view changed.
It started off as a beautiful day - 48 degrees and the sun shining. It rose quickly into the fifties and sixties. It was the perfect combination of warm sun and cool air. We had a snowball fight on one snowbank (I won) and rested on top of one of the most picturesque spots we have seen.
Then, as we were preparing for some sunset photography, the weather changed quickly. And a lightening storm came down the valley. The image above is from the early stages as the clouds rolled in. The sun was still out at the other end and providing some great light. It got worse than this and the lightening and rain chased us down the valley (we were in the car). There was even some sleet mixed in with the rain. So while we didn't get the typical sunset photos, we had a great day anyway!
The first photo below is an early morning view of Lake Crescent as we drove back to Hurricane Ridge. And the other photo is what the same mountain range looked like during the nice sunny part of the day.
Hope you enjoyed the Olympic National Park photos as much as I enjoyed making them!