The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge shows signs of the 6.8 earthquake that was centered 35 miles below the surface here on Feb. 28, 2001. This crack in one of the dikes that surrounds the refuge is one of many...

Just two days after the Spring Equinox, skunk cabbage is emerging from the mud alongside the Nisqually River. Although from a distance this plant smells foul, if you get close to the flower it is so sweet as to be almost sickening.

Brush and trees form a gateway over the path that encircles the refuge...and since it was early in spring when I took this walk, most of the trees are yet to have their leaves.

Along the wetter sections of the trail, near the Nisqually River, moss and other plants that thrive in the damp are plentiful.

I am unsure of the exact type of this mushroom, but it caught my eye shortly after I snapped the shot of the moss above.

Bright orange slime mold grows on the side of a fallen log along a damp section of the trail.

This is one of my favorite shots of the landscapes I took with my digital camera while on this walk. It shows the tidelands of the Nisqually River Delta at low tide, with the Olympic Mountains in the background.

This shot also looks out over the tidelands at a boathouse, with the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Some of the geese at the refuge on this day were so bold that walking right past them on the trail didn't send them scurrying for the water.

The inner tidelands inside the dikes that surround the refuge reflect in the foreground while Mt. Rainier rises in the distance. The Nisqually River flows from a glacier on the tallest volcano in the Lower 48.

A pair of barns still sit on the refuge grounds. The land that makes up the refuge was once a working dairy farm...

I saw two types of butterflies while taking the 5.5 mile walk on the outer trail at the refuge, but this Hoary Comma was the only one that would hold still long enough to let me get a photo...