Looking for landscapes near Olympia, WA

[snitramc]

Hello Netters,

 

I will be in Olympia, WA for a few days in middle November. Any of

you nature photographers out there have good spots to reommend for

shooting?

 

thx

 

martin

[jimmy_jin]

I haven't done many landscapes around here, and because I'm a relative amateur I hesitate to recommend any shooting spots. I have been to a lot of parks and stuff around the place just for walks and the like, though. They may not be best for shooting... but feel free to e-mail me. It makes me feel special. :)

 

Watershed park has some cool scenery--it's pretty much a trail inside a big basin-type thing. Trees are everywhere. It's got streams, weird looking logs, clearings, little viewpoints, etc. It's pretty popular for walks around here, at least. I'll head down there maybe tomorrow to get some shots for you so you can see what it looks like--I live right next to it. :P

 

Tumwater falls is also a popular place, as far as nature inside the city goes. As the name implies, it's a series of waterfalls along the Deschutes river with another trail (with bridge!) that is built running along it. There's numerous little sidepaths that people have made that let you get down right next to the water and the like. If you go down to the bottom you are practically right under I-5 and next to Capital Lake. There's another little trail around there that is popular for shots as well.

 

Burfoot and Priest Point park are located north of downtown a little bit. They're sort of like watershed park except next to Budd Bay. Not sure if they're good for photos, though.

 

As always there is the Nisqually wildlife refuge and the accompanying Nisqually River etcetera. I haven't been there since I was maybe 8, so I would take this advice with a grain of salt. (Take all my advice with a grain of salt!) But check it out online--there's probably stuff about it all over the place.

 

Tolmie state park is OK. It's a beachfront park that is popular during the summer a little bit outside of the city. You can probably get some good shots of the puget sound from there, but I can't remember clearly again... blah.

 

Hmm... I can't think of anything much besides that at the moment, mainly because I have a pounding headache, but PLEASE e-mail me. I live in Olympia and I've been here for most of my short, 16-year life. I don't bite! :)

 

-Jimmy Jin

[Jerry_]

Seattle has a large garden at the University of Washington,

Olympic National Park is a couple of hours up on the Pacific Coast (there are shore and mountain areas of the park, along with dense rain forest,) and Mt. Rainier is an hour or so drive from Olympia.

 

 

 

Prepare for rain (just in case) and travel safe!

[jim_gifford]

<<... and Mt. Rainier is an hour or so drive from Olympia.>>

 

Wow, what kind of Ferrari do YOU drive? It always took me more like two hours to get to the Paradise visitor center... more if the roads were snowy.

 

Martin: the waterfront areas of Olympia are quite pretty. Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater are classic Pacific Northwest towns, which is to say, there is so much breathtaking beauty close by that people don't work very hard to make the towns themselves pretty. Bulldoze a bunch of trees, throw in some stores, that sort of thing.

 

If the weather is crystal clear (not bloody likely in November but hey, pigs fly once in a while) you can see Rainier looming above the airport from the control tower side... or looming above town from near the Albertson's in Lacey... from up on the hill in Tumwater... and from various other spots where you get some elevation with a free view eastward.

 

There's a rain forest on the Olympic peninsula, and Hurricane Ridge on the north side of the peninsula.

 

Mount Saint Helens is a couple hours' drive, south along I-5 and then east through quiet farm country and one or two very small towns.

 

The Columbia River Gorge (and Portland) are two hours' drive south.

 

The San Juans are a day trip by ferry, or by whalewatch boat.

 

Seattle is about an hour northeast along I-5.

 

I used to love the incredible climate change that occurs during the very short drive from Mount Rainier eastward to Yakima. There's a museum in Yakima that serves a GREAT chocolate malt at the old-style soda fountain. The hills around Yakima are dry as toast with bits of scrub. Quite a treat compared to the mossy, evergreen forests near Olympia. The rest of Yakima is, well, not exactly beautiful unless you have a hankering for tattoos or something. But then you go north from Yakima to Ellensburg along this wonderful river canyon road, and then come up over the cascades again on I-90 to Seattle and watch everything turn green again.

 

The people in Olympia are very sweet. We lived there for a few years and enjoyed everything except the drizzle.

 

Be well,

[the lone ranger]

the olympics shouldn't take that long to get to, but it will probaly be flooded.

[craig_gillette]

The Snoqualmie Falls area might interest you.

[snitramc]

Thanks all. I have begun marking locations on my maps. As I will have onlt two or three - 8 hour days, I suspect I will not hit the Olympics or the Rain Forest. Most of the other stuff sounds pretty good. Thanks again.