A Tale of Two Volcanoes: Sunset at Sunrise - Part 2

Contents:

Introduction
29 July: On the way to Paradise
29 July: Experiencing Paradise: Part 1, Part 2
30 July: Inside the Blast Zone: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
31 July: Sunset at Sunrise: Part 1, Part 2
1 Aug: Wildflowers Galore
1 Aug: Sights along the Ohanapecosh River: Part 1, Part 2 is yet to be written
1 Aug: Wildflowers beckon yet again - Yet to be written
2 Aug: Another trip to Paradise - Yet to be written

1 Aug 2003: Sights along the Ohanapecosh River: Part 1

	I had my lunch rather early (11:15 - 11:30a.m.)at the picnic tables at Tipsoo Lake. So when I got to Ohanapecosh, I immediately picked up a description of the hot springs trail from the visitor center and was on my way. The first sight one sees is the cross-section of a tree trunk just outside the visitor center - the diameter of this tree was about 1.5 feet taller than me! Some of the rings were labelled with world events such as Elizabeth I ascends throne of England.... Amazing! The trail went through beautiful forest as shown in the photo. There is a hot spring at Ohanapecosh. But it is not geothermally heated (even though there is a massive volcano not too far away with geothermal vents near its peak). The water is heated as it flows over rocks that are being compressed. Compression heats the rocks, which in turn heat the water. I had asked the park staff if I could put my hand in the water, and they said it was fine to do so. The water felt warm, not overly hot. These springs were used for medicinal purposes not too long ago, but they have since been restored to their natural state.
	A limestone terrace (in the shade) at Ohanapecosh. This was formed in exactly the same way that the limestone terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park formed. But this terrace is much, much smaller. The trail that I was on led to Silver Falls, my next destination, but I decided to approach the falls from another trail, which was shorter. So I returned to the visitor center and returned my trail description to the staff.
	The Ohanapecosh River from the bridge at the Grove of Patriarchs parking lot, looking east. Note how clear the water is. This river originates from snow melt, hence the water is very clear. It looks green because the red and yellow light from sunlight has been absorbed by the water. If the water were deeper (as in the case of the lakes), the green light would also be absorbed. I took this photo around 12:45p.m., but since the shadows point in the westerly direction, it looks like the sun hadn't yet crossed the meridian. This means that local noon hadn't yet occurred. (I checked the location of the 120W longitude which is used for the Pacific Time Zone and it is indeed east of the Park. In addition, being summer, the time we used was day light savings, which is anyway one hour ahead of standard time. So both effects would work towards making local time be earlier than noon.)
	The Ohanapecosh river can be seen through the trees on the way to Silver Falls as patches of light green amongst the rocks. It was much easier to hear the river than see it most of the time. The trail I took to Silver falls started at the Grove of the Patriarchs parking lot. It went through beautiful forest.
	View of Ohanapecosh river forming Silver Falls cascade.
	The bottom of Silver Falls.
	Looking at the sky through the forest, along the Silver Falls trail.

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All photos are copyrighted 2003 onwards. Please contact me (ndcruz at depaul dot edu) if you wish to use these photos.