August 26, 2011: The park is an old-growth forest. It has an ADA-accessible interpretive trail, 3 short hiking loops, and one longer trail. See the trail info here: http://www.wta.org/signpost/go-hiking/hikes/rockport-state-park
The campground at the park was already shut down due to risk of falling trees. In November of 2010, the longer Evergreen Trail was rendered impassable by trees blown down in a storm. It's possible it's been fixed by now, but after landing in a nettle patch trying to get onto the trail, I decided I'd just wander around the shorter loops. (UPDATE 2012: per a trail report from Nov 2012, it sounds like the trails are open.)
The path through the fallen trees will give you many opportunities to examine the rings of the trunks.
I am not quite sure what this butterfly is - I think maybe a Cabbage White? - but it kept flying along with me on the trail. I recognize it was just probably terrified and was trying to fly AHEAD of me, nevertheless, it added a bit of a Disney experience to the day.
Since the campground is closed, the lane and pads that used to be where car campers drove and park are deserted, adding a slightly...post-apocalyptic and/or horror movie type feel to that section of the park (if you tend towards the dramatic). I was therefore not surprised to run into a patch of the creepy Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) that I'd first met on another creepy hike(http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacatholique/6021151230/in/set-72157627258545419). The dead ones are decidedly Edward Gorey-esque or look like a decoration that would top a Victorian cupola. (UPDATE 2012: although the trails are open, the campground is still closed.)
Also creepy: the remaining live ones had these worms coming out of them. But the worms were completely still, as though they all tried to eat this weird plant and died simultaneously.
But on to encounters with more cheerful flora, like this lone ripe thimbleberry that I saw and ate.
I'd been seeing the herb-robert (aka Stinky Bob or Death come quickly; Latin name Geranium robertianum) all summer, but on this trip, started seeing this little lance-like seed capsule. In looking it up after the hike, I learned this capsule gives this group of plants one of its common names: cranesbill.
Foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata)
Sweet-scented bedstraw (Galium triflorum).
Sweet-scented bedstraw (Galium triflorum)