Gold Creek, Round 2

I wanted to take another crack at the Gold Creek trail, partially to get some more fireweed pictures in this season and partially just because I liked the trail. To my surprise, a lot of the fireweed on the trail still haven't bloomed yet! Still, a few were blooming, and I found some other things along the way too.

The highlight of the hike was probably the fog.The nights are long enough now that when it is clear and not too warm, the cool air - especially when it collects in wind-sheltered valleys - has time to cool to its saturation point and create fog. I noticed this on my drive that morning; hilltops were usually clear but a thin mist often hung over valleys. The Gold Creek valley was in a thick fog when I arrived.

The sun was warm that day, though, and didn't take long to burn off the fog. I made it to a viewpoint at just the right time, and got some sweet pictures of the fog lifting:

I found a new kind of flower! I'd seen it before in some parks around here, but I'd never taken pictures of it. It's called Cooley's Hedge Nettle (stachys cooleyae). You can find them here and there in Seattle-area parks, but they were everywhere on the Gold Creek trail.

Most of the wooded areas along the trail look pretty dry, but there are a few moister areas with some devil's club growing. Devil's club always makes me think of a jungle.

Now the fireweed pictures. I was not altogether very pleased with how they turned out. A lot of them just looked a bit to midday-ish (i.e. too high of contrast, with the rich color of the blossoms not coming through too well). Nevertheless, here are the more tolerable ones.

Finally, I took this interesting picture from Gold Creek Pond, which lies at the beginning of the trail (strictly speaking, before - you pass the Pond and then walk a mile along a residential road before actually getting to the Gold Creek Trail). There are those who might say that I overpolarized this one (i.e. cut too much glare from the surface of the water), but  I like how the rocks at the bottom of the pond are visible in the foreground. I think the blue of both water and sky are spoken for well enough in other parts of the picture.