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Olympic National Park

Washington State is home to some nice mammals and even nicer scenery. I visited there in February 2009 for the first time and had a couple of days to look around. February is not a good time to find mammals and it was even worse than expected after a late snow storm dumped 8" on the Olympic Peninsula. But it didn't stop me trying. In 1 October 2009 I reuturned for a day. The first snow of the winter was falling. And I went back for a couple of days in August 2010.

The Olympic Peninsula
I had been corresponding with Coke Smith from Washington for a few months (he has some great trip reports for Borneo, Russia and Thailand among others) and I managed to blag an invitation to stay at his place. And what a place it was: on the edge of the ocean with its own private forest and Mountain Beavers (or Boomers as the locals call them) living in the yard. Coke and Som plus little Cokie couldn't feed me enough food, pour me enough beer or try to find me enough mammals. And all this for a stranger. I was overwhelmed with their hospitality.

Coke and I spent a half a day in Olympic National Park around Port Angeles and despite the snow he managed to find me Black-tailed Deer (the Columbianus race), a Douglas Squirrel and lots of Harbour Seals on the spit in Port Angeles. We set some traps around his place and caught several North American Deer Mice.

I spent a second day on the peninsula when my work finished and headed to Kalaloch. Its a beautiful coastline and the Hoh Rainforest was like something out of the Lord of the Rings (without the Hobbits - thank god).

Hall of Mosses, Hoh Rainforest

There were plenty of Deer Mice (mainly Keen's Deer Mice) in some traps just outside the park and a couple of Elk (Rooseveltii) at the Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rainforest visitor centre.

Roosevelt's Elk

Driving back to Coke's place I saw a large vole scurry along the roadside for a couple of seconds in the mid afternoon before it was grabbed by a Hawk and a process of elimination meant it must have been a Townsend's Vole. A tickable lifer for me, even if a dodgier tick than I would have wanted.

Douglas Squirrel

Back at Coke's place we found a Raccoon during some impromptu night driving and then hit pay dirt when the traps he had open all week caught a Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia) at the 11th hour. This was the species I wanted to see most and it was a groovy little thing.

Mountain Beaver, Aplodontia, Sewellel, Boomer, Ground Bear or Giant Mole.

Because of the weather it seemed that just about all of the Townsend's Chipmunks which I wanted to see were still in torpor. Coke had seen one a few days before I arrived but I didn't talk to anyone else who had seen one that year. In summer they are very common (just try any campsite on the peninsula I reckon, though they have largely been driven out of Seattle by the Western Grey Squirrels.)

Olympic Marmots are also common in the summer in the high country but they were hibernating of course (and even if they weren't the road was closed). Yellow Pine Chipmunks (the caurinus subspecies) are also findable when you can get into the higher bits of the park. Coke has seen Bobcats quite often, while Black Bears, Pumas, River Otters and authentic Beavers are all among the species that are near to Port Angeles.

So a pretty productive couple of days despite the weather with spectacular hospitality from Coke and his family. I should be heading back at the end of September so should try to pick up on a few of the things I missed and sink a few more bottles of red with Coke.

And indeed I was back in Seattle in October for work so returned to Coke's place for a night and spent most of the day poking around the Olympic National Park looking for Chipmunks and the endemic Olympic Marmots.

Hurricane Ridge

In summer the Marmots are easy to see up on Hurricane Ridger and you can drive up to see them once the road opens (which is sometimes as late as June). The road to Obstruction Point is particularly good apparently. Marmots usually hibernate by mid September but Coke had seen them later and I expect so would I had there not been a fall of snow the night I arrived. I drove up to the ridge and couldn't see any marmots, but did meet a couple of hikers returning from the backcountry who had seen a couple of marmots the day before. I also saw a Mule Deer up there and others had seen Mountain Goats the same day.

The Chipmunks were still active and I saw several Yellow Pine Chipmunks on hurricane ridge, with others in the Heart O' the Hills campground.

Yellow Pine Chipmunk

Townsend's Chipmunks, which apparently only live in lower elevations were harder to find. They are pretty similar to the Yellow Pine flavour and though I think I saw a couple in the Heart o' the Hills I wouldn't swear to it. But Coke has them at his place and we caught one in a Sherman Trap. The strips on the back were much less marked than in the Yellow Pine.

We also got a couple of Keen's Deer Mice on Coke's property.

Keen's Deer Mouse

In August 2010 I finally caught up with the Olympic Marmots. The rangers at Hurricane Ridge said the only way to see one was to walk a couple of miles along the trail at the end of the tarred road, but after 5 minutes of my 6 year old whinging I decided that this wasn't an option. So I drove along Obstruction Point Road and found Marmots easily about a mile or two from the end of the road, on the left hand side (travelling away from the ranger station) in the first bit of alpine meadow that you see. There were several Marmots here, their whistles carried for miles, and one at least was very approachable.

Olympic Marmot

Mount Rainier

I went on to Mount Rainier for a night to look for Cascade Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels, apparently abundant in the park. Unfortunately the weather was against me again, as the snow that had fallen the day before in the Olympics had reached Mount Rainier as I arrived. The ground squirrels had been all over the place in the Paradise area of the park a few days before I got there. But though I saw what were probably their tracks a couple of times in the snow I couldn't find an animal. The only mammals I saw in the day were a couple of Douglas Squirrels.

I did however head out for a short spotlight in the half-hearted approach of seeing a Northern Flying Squirrel. I decided to take a look in some sub alpine forest and took a walk around the Cougar Rocks Campsite near Ashford at 11pm. As I was almost back at the car I heard something scrabbling on a tree and then a (presumably second) animal landed on the trunk right above my head and I got great views, though I had left my camera in the car. The squirrels were right on the corner of the campsite drive and the highway.

In August 2010 I returned to Mount Rainier for 3 hours on the way to Seattle airport. The weather wasn't great and after talking to the ranger it seemed that Cascade Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels are not quite as abundant as I had imagined. She said that there were often some running around a couple of miles along a trail near Myrtle Falls but I didn't really have enough time to get there, and only saw Yellow-Pine Chipmunks along the first mile. Reflection Lake was also supposed to be a spot for them. I saw Least and Yellow-Pine Chipmunks here too, but its possible that one squirrel that jumped across the trail in front of me was a Cascade Golden Mantled, though I cannot be certain.

We did spot a Hoary Marmot just next to the road near Reflection Lake though (about a mile or two before the lake coming from Paradise).

Hoary Marmot

Other People's Trip Reports
North West 2010: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington : John Fox, 13 days, 4400 miles and 34 mammals including a Long-tailed Weasel and hearing a Pygmy Rabbit.

Pacific Northwest 2006: Mark Hows, 2 weeks & 27 species of mammals including a Marten.