Nine-Stream is named, like most streams in the Olympics, by explorers. The trail there is, well traveled—the old road of those first white-skins, a path hoping for the mountains' heart. The peaks are sandstone here, not granite like the Rockies. It's softer—box canyons carved even in thick forest. On a summer day, the wet of winter's rain still obvious.
Mt. Steel's unassuming southeast face watches over a ferny glen among the rocks.
