The Hike to Marymere Falls

Old Growth Alder, Cedar, Fir, and Hemlock

On Monday I gave you just a taste of some of the wonders contained with the Olympic National Park.  Today we’ll take a short hike into an old growth forest there.  Rounding Lake Crescent we pulled off of Route 101 and parked the rental at the Storm King Ranger Station on Barnes Point, the site of an ancient land slide that spilled into Lake Crescent.

Intrepid Hiker Ursula Wicker

From Storm King we took the pedestrian tunnel back beneath Route 101 and started our hike to the south for Marymere Falls.  It was a good day for umbrellas as drizzle began before we reached the falls and turned to light rain on the hike back out.  For many of today’s photos Ursula sheltered both me and camera while I composed and took the shots.

Old Growth Forest

As you can see the falls are not the only sights along the way.  During the hike the trail takes you through an old growth forest of alder, cedar, fir, and hemlock.

Old Growth Forest

And along the way there are some pretty dramatic splashes of color.

Splashes of Color in a Sea of Green

I’m not a dendrologist by any stretch, but I assume the reddish carcasses we saw on this journey are the remains of western redcedar.  Feel free to leave a comment correcting me if I’m wrong on that.

Old Growth Forest

You know that you’re getting close to Marymere Falls when you finally start trekking along Barnes Creek.

Barnes Creek

Barnes Creek runs from the base of Marymere Falls to Barnes Point.  Even so, the trail to Marymere Falls only runs alongside Barnes Creek toward the end of the hike.  On this week’s Fun Photo Friday you’ll get a glimpse of Marymere Falls as well as other favorite shots from this hike and from Lake Crescent.

Barnes Creek

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted.  The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by RDoug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes.  That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do.  As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:

© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you, Destinary

Final note:  Considering The Destinary is a site run by a travel agency, you may want to rethink doing business with them.