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Dosewallips State Park

12

Dosewallips State Park

Brinnon, Washington

visited 25 December 2020

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At first glance, when you drive through this park on Highway 101, you might be tempted to say this park is for the birds. I wouldn’t blame you: from the highway, you see campsites and a parking lot full of geese. But if you stopped there, you would be missing a lot.

This park offers a lot more.

At a second glance, there is a long and peaceful marshy shoreline only a few steps from the highway:

A winding tidal creek lined with golden marsh grasses and muddy banks cuts through the Dosewallips estuary under an overcast winter sky, with evergreen trees and a few houses on a point to the right and low hills fading into mist along the distant shoreline.

A wet gravel path winds through a golden tidal marsh toward a wooden observation platform at Dosewallips State Park, with the waters of Hood Canal and low forested hills under an overcast gray sky in the distance.

A wide panorama of a tidal estuary marsh under an overcast gray sky, with golden-brown grasses cut through by meandering channels of still water and a muddy footpath leading toward the shoreline, low hills on the horizon.

A tidal salt marsh at Dosewallips State Park, where winding channels of still water thread through golden-brown grasses leading out to the calm waters of Hood Canal, with tree-covered hills on the far shore and two evergreen trees standing on the left under an overcast gray sky.

The real treasure awaits those who have a couple of hours to spend on Dosewallip’s hiking trails. I hiked a loop of the Steam Donkey and Maple Valley trails.

A delightful mossy landscape was there for me:

A small moss-covered stone dam creates a shallow forest pond that spills over a low waterfall into a creek, crossed by a simple wooden plank bridge, all surrounded by dense ferns and towering evergreen trees in a lush Pacific Northwest rainforest.

A cluster of small, pale pinkish-tan bracket mushrooms with fuzzy, scalloped caps growing on a damp, moss-covered log or rock surface, surrounded by bright green moss.

A gnarled, weathered piece of twisted driftwood or decaying tree root lies on the forest floor, its dark reddish-brown wood contrasting with surrounding bright green moss and scattered fallen brown leaves in a damp, lush rainforest setting.

A close-up of a tree trunk with deeply furrowed gray-brown bark, its right side and lower portion covered in lush, bright green moss, with a tuft of pale green lichen clinging near the top.

Close-up of a cut tree stump showing concentric growth rings in deep reddish-brown wood, speckled with patches of white fungus, with a thick cap of bright green moss growing along the top edge.

Close-up of a weathered tree stump topped with a thick cushion of vivid green moss that drapes down one damp, bark-covered side, while the right side shows pale, mottled fungus or lichen and dark wet wood.

A small rushing creek tumbles over moss-covered rocks and boulders through a lush temperate rainforest, with fallen mossy logs spanning the water and dense ferns, evergreens, and fallen leaves lining the banks.

A nurse-log tree in a lush temperate rainforest, its moss-covered trunk raised on a cage of exposed, intertwined roots that once grew over a now-decayed stump. Ferns and reddish fallen leaves cover the forest floor along a dirt trail, with moss-draped conifer branches filling the misty background.

Who could miss the waterfall at Phantom Creek?

For more information:

State Parks web site

Jackson House State Park Heritage Site

Miller Peninsula State Park Property