It's June 15th, in the southeastern corner of the Olympic Mountains of Washington. Lake Cushman is only 800 feet above sea level, and the distant peaks rise to only about 4,600 feet. Look at all that snow! One easily grasps why the Olympics sport many permanent snowfields and glaciers, even though their highest peak rises to just shy of 8,000 feet (Mt. Olympus)....Just north of Lake Cushman rise Mt. Ellinor at 5944 ft, and Mt. Washington at 6255, part of the Mount Skokomish Wilderness Area (Skokomesh is 6434 ft.).The picture below is from the summit of Mt. Ellinore, looking down to the trailless NW side of the peak. The soft lighting and many drifting clouds are common to the Olympic Range, and hint at the vast amounts of precipitation that this mountain range receives, up to 200 inches a year on the Pacific Ocean side of the Range, which is where the famous Hoh Rainforest is.
Below is a picture of Lightning Peak, at 4654 ft, it is the high point visible in the left center of the picture at top of page.
