Olympia – Mima Mounds and Capitol Forest

About 10 miles south of our campground, there is an area of unusual geological formations – called, the Mima Mounds. Covering 445 acres, these mounds of earth are from 4 – 8 feet in height and approximately 30 feet in diameter. No one has a convincing reason for the mounds. Explanations range from Indian burials to ambitious gophers to earthquake upheaval. The mounds are not particularly spectacular, just strange – appearing on a small prairie / valley where you don’t expect the unexpected.

We walked the short – 1.0 mile – trail through the mounds, but had no new insights. Margaret and I theorized that the mounds might be the result of glacial melt / flood flow, but no one knows for sure. The mounds are supposed to be about 11,000 years old. There were lots of wildflowers, moss and lichens, and enormous trees.

A skeet / trap shooting range on the far side of the mounds kept us alert. I think they were having some type of competition. At first it sounded like WWII, but during the lulls, we heard “PULL”, and decided it was all good, clean fun.

We then drove another 20 miles south to explore the Capitol Forest. A 90,000 acre forest devoted to various forms of hiking, mountain biking, logging, and general nature study. Although we believed we knew where we were going, we ended up on a one-lane muddy / rocky road that appeared to be used by logging trucks. Fortunately, we didn’t meet any since there was nowhere to pass. After a long drive up, we concluded we weren’t getting anywhere – at least not anywhere we wanted to be – so we turned around for a long drive down.

After successfully negotiating the road down, we found a picnic table by a pleasant stream, Mill Creek. All’s well that ends well, i.e., we didn’t have to call for helicopter evac or the auto club!

Today’s photos are pretty self-explanatory. In addition to the mounds (how do you take a photo of a series of 5 foot high mounds in a prairie?), there is a photo from the hilltop in Capitol Forest where we turned around, to lunch being prepared, and a funny tree close by with lots of little moss-covered limbs. Lots of green in the undergrowth in the northwest woods!