Wilderness Stairs, Part II

Here's another stairway we found in an unexpected wilderness setting a few days ago, about 25 miles into a backpack in Olympic National Park. This magnificent cascading stairway was built to preserve a fragile slope in the rainforest near the headwaters of the North Fork of the Quinault River. The second picture below has nothing to do with stairways, but it was very memorable, so what the heck!

Cathy and our friend Bill, descending one of the few stairways along our 44+ mile trail

A mysterious fungus pops out of a log 

Update on Tuesday, August 27 by Jake Jaramillo

A friend from Alaska says: "The shelf mushroom you found on the North Fork of the Quinault River is called Laetiporus sulphureus or Chicken of the Woods. It is edible and quite gourmet when harvested early in the season. It can be pan fried in butter for say an omelet and has a taste and texture much like chicken. Best of all there are no poisonous look alikes. Some years here it is quite abundant other years not so much." Thanks Linwood!