note: i lifted the picture to the left from here. still haven't gotten a camera.Finding ourselves with an unexpected "free" day, we took off toward Staircase in Olympic National Park. It was a wonderful drive up, and we were even able to see some sunlight as we cruised around Lake Cushman. I didn't really know the story of the lake, or the Skokomish river until after we returned. Here is some interesting reading. And also here.
The river was low; also the bridge was out on the Staircase loop. We still hiked in and then climbed down onto the rocks, getting really close to the falls. Unlike the log/river incident at the Lower Skokomish, the rock climbing/ hovering over the river stunts scared me more than Evan. I just kept thinking we were going to tumble into the falls and well that would be it! I know that's stupid, but the rocks were slippery and well, whatever. Evan wanted to climb down so I went with him. Ultimately though I was glad to get back on the trail. After that we hiked through more old growth and well into the area where there had been a fire in 1985 (1986?).
It was a good afternoon walk, a very,very easy "hike" if it can even be called that. If this trip could be summed up in one word it would probably be "magical". There is a bunch of old growth the first mile or more into this trail. As we did this walk I was hyper aware of how fast the landscape can change. All of the snow damage, along with the burned up stumps and rotted out trees; all of the erosion and the sliding of giant trees down green mossy slopes into the river-- all of it was amazing! We had fun!
