Hi, I'm Eric.

I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

I help implement the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe.

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Bogachiel State Park

south of Forks, Washington

visited 30 January 2021

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Bogachiel is Washington’s sole state park on the outer reaches of the Olympic Peninsula. Situated on the banks of the Bogachiel River south of Forks, it offers camping and some short hiking trails. On this rainy winter day, it offered solitude, too. I had the park more or less to myself for much of an afternoon.

I expect, were I to return in mid-summer, I would find it very much busier. Meanwhile the campground and the river quietly await the return of the crowds and campers.

An empty gravel campsite with a fire ring, scattered boulders, and a wooden picnic bench, set among moss-covered trees beside a river on an overcast winter day at Bogachiel State Park near Forks, Washington.

A moss-covered tree with exposed, sprawling roots stands on a rocky riverbank beside the pale green-gray waters of the Bogachiel River, with bare winter trees and leafless brush lining both shores under an overcast sky.

A gravel campsite loop at Bogachiel State Park surrounded by tall moss-draped evergreens and leafless shrubs, with a wooden picnic table set behind a split-rail fence and bright green moss covering the ground on an overcast winter day.

A damp, mossy campsite at Bogachiel State Park surrounded by tall moss-draped evergreen trees, with a dark picnic table and fire ring tucked among the trunks and a gravel pad bordered by moss-covered boulders in the foreground.

There is a short hiking trail through the woods near the river and many more hiking trails in the area. Here are a few scenes from within the park itself.

A wet wooden picnic table with metal legs sits on a bare dirt clearing in a damp Pacific Northwest forest, surrounded by moss-covered tree trunks and tall evergreens. Behind the table stands a brown trail marker sign showing a hiker symbol and an arrow pointing right.

The base of a large tree in a rainforest, where a patch of bark has been stripped away to reveal smooth, reddish-brown wood beneath, surrounded by thick green moss and lichen. Small plants and ferns grow from the damp forest floor at the tree’s foot.

A narrow dirt footpath winds through a lush, moss-covered temperate rainforest, flanked by large tree trunks blanketed in bright green moss and surrounded by ferns, young conifers, and low green underbrush.

A narrow dirt footpath winds through a lush temperate rainforest, flanked by moss-covered fallen logs, sawn stumps, and towering conifer trunks draped in green moss, with ferns and understory plants covering the damp ground under a pale overcast sky.

A moss-draped tree stump in a damp temperate rainforest, topped with glossy wet salal leaves and small hemlock seedlings, with shaggy green moss and pale lichen hanging down its sides. The forest floor and background are a soft blur of ferns, mossy ground, and tree trunks in muted winter light.

A narrow dirt trail winds through a lush temperate rainforest, flanked by towering conifers whose trunks are blanketed in bright green moss. Ferns, mossy ground cover, and fallen leaves line the path under the overcast winter light at Bogachiel State Park near Forks, Washington.

A moss-covered tree trunk anchors into a jumble of moss-draped boulders in a temperate rainforest, with lush green sword ferns and fallen brown leaves scattered among the roots and understory. The dense forest of mossy trunks fades into the background under soft, diffuse daylight.

For more information:

State Parks web site

Hope Island Marine State Park (of Mason County)

Kopachuck State Park

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Bogachiel State Park

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