Walking on the Hoquiam River Loop

Near the end of May, I had a nice golden hour walk along the Hoquiam River in Hoquiam, Wash.

I trekked along a 5- to 6-block stretch of the Hoquiam River Loop, a combination of city sidewalk and paved walking trail that runs between (and over) Riverside and Simpson Avenue bridges.

^{Above – The Hoquiam River Loop behind Swanson's Grocery. You can view a full shot of the Whale Dance mural on the backside of the grocery store by clicking the link.}

This was an intentional photowalk. I was looking for wildlife to photograph with my new 75mm-300mm zoom lens, but I started out with my basic 18mm-55mm, since that works better for the landscape shots I wanted for context.

I ended up walking back and forth along the river in my search, taking most of the photos with the basic lens. I never settled into a particular area, so this post presents some random views.

^{Above – There are a lot of secluded and abandoned spaces on the river here, one block from downtown Hoquiam. The concrete on the left is, I suspect, part of the old 8th Street Bridge, which spanned the river in the early 1900s.}

^{Below – The tugboats Wynema Spirit, Lulapin, and Mary Rose Brusco moored at their home base next to Riverside Bridge. Click the blue letters to see the Wynema Spirit and Lulapin in action on the Grays Harbor bay.}

Of course I did find some wildlife to photograph, though nothing too special: no heron, kingfishers, otters, or seals, all of which I see on the river here on occasion. Just a family of Canadian geese that I chased up and down the river as I moved around. They were running (and swimming) so fast I didn't bother to switch lenses until I had managed to scare them all the way across the river.

The final shot in this series was taken with my new lens.

If there is any particular subject in this post, other than the geese, it is Simpson Avenue Bridge and its surround.

The sun lit the bridge nicely.

I took a few shots looking out from under the bridge, with Beacon Hill as a backdrop.

^{Above – The brown building at left is the former Arnold Polson mansion and now the Polson Museum. The Polsons were one of Hoquiam's original logging families, setting up their logging company in 1891, one year after Hoquiam was incorporated.(Source)}

At dusk, as the shoot was ending, I came across one more species of wildlife to photograph, a robin singing away in a felled tree's bare branches.

I recorded a video of its song to share too. Near the middle you can hear a distinctive feature of this section of the riverwalk: vehicle tires running across the steel-grated portion of Simpson Avenue Bridge.

Thanks for sharing the walk with me. Have a great day!