The "Peninsula"

We have spent the last 3 days exploring Olympic National Park. This immense park is spread out over a large portion of the Olympic Peninsula. The diversity is what sets the National Park apart from others that we have been to. There is everything from glacier carved mountain peaks, to densely forested river valleys and Misty ocean shores to waterfall strewn rain forests.
Our first day in the area we headed for Hurricane Ridge one of the major and more accessible parts of the National park. It is also home to the largest of the Visitor Centers so we figured this would be a good first stop so that we can plan the rest of our time here and make sure that we don’t miss anything. The drive up the hill was interesting and quite beautiful made a little harrowing by the number of cyclists making their was slowly up the mountain on the narrow road. Since Scott spent a lot of time on a bicycle we probably have a little more patience for them than most but it still slowed things down a bit. The view from the top was amazing, although the effects of the smoke from the BC fires can still be seen. It seems to be lessening on a daily basis. We hiked a loop trail to check out the views. Scott was a little nostalgic remembering that he had stood in almost the exact spot with his Dad nearly 50 years ago. Looking East there was still a lot of haze but he view toward the North was almost completely clear. It was cool to see Vancouver Island and the City of Victoria, BC right across the Straight of Juan de Fuca. There were a lot of wild flowers, grazing deer and fir and hemlock trees that seem to make up most of the landscape here. We even saw a large Marmot but is quickly disappeared before I could get a photo of it.

Since we are early risers we were on our way down the mountain before most of the crowds started up. From the amount of traffic, both car and bicycle, we were really glad we started early. With part of the days still ahead of us we headed into Port Angeles to check out the town and see what else there was to see and do in the area. To be quite honest we were frankly disappointed. I think it was probably a really nice town at one time but is now mostly run down and crowed with horrible traffic. We stopped by the visitor center and walked through a pathetically small farmers market and decided to stop at the market for a few groceries before heading back to the trailer.
Sunday we decided to stay in and do some chores. This decision was facilitated by a number of factors. The first being that it has rained through the night and although it had stopped it was still very windy making the weather rather uncomfortable. The second was that I somehow managed to tweak my ankle and woke up with it sore and swollen. Nothing major but I figured a day resting it would help to make sure that I didn’t miss any of the other sights that we intent to see in the next few days, all of which require some hiking. Thirdly, we were running out of clean underwear.
Monday we planned a long day of sightseeing. We had done the mountains mentioned in the beginning of this chapter but wanted to see both the Valley and Shoreline sights in the area. This required about 4 hours of driving along with hiking at all of the stops. My ankle was doing better so this didn’t seem to be an issue but we made sure to plan plenty of time at each stop so that I wouldn’t challenge it too much. The Sol Duc Valley is a beautiful river valley with Hot Springs and Waterfalls, and in fall a major Salmon run. Of course there were no Salmon here right now but the wild flowers were blooming and the forest was really beautiful. We did a mile hike through an ancient forest of huge fir and hemlock trees all

covered in moss and ferns. The early morning light was filtering through and illuminating what seemed like 50 shades of green….well maybe not that many but a lot. After the ancient forest we headed for our main attraction for the day, Sol Duc Falls. These falls are the iconic falls of Olympic National Park and can be viewed from several angles. The hike was almost 2 miles round trip but the trail was good for the most part and the scenery along the way prompted us to take our time and enjoy the sights and the silence. Once again being early paid off. On our way back to the truck we must have passed 50 people…early risers conquer the world!!!!

The next part of our adventure took us toward the coast and the most Northwest point in the continental US. We didn’t quite make it all of the way there…it was a really long drive…but the shore had it’s own special kind of beauty. We were so far North our phones though we were in Canada. It was fun to walk on the shore, explore tide pools, and see the seabirds. At that point we decided it was time to turn around. The road was rather narrow so it was a few minutes before we found a safe spot. When we pulled over we saw a path to the beach though some berry bushes.

We walked around for a few minutes and headed back to truck only then realizing that these Blackberry bushes were not only covered with berries but that they were all ripe!!!! We ate our fill and picked a bunch to take back with us….we also realized that we weren’t the only ones that enjoyed blackberries. There was a huge pile of bear crap that seriously was purple….
Today I’m relaxing and blogging while Scott plays golf. We'll head out early tomorrow since there is a long stretch of beach on the drive that is also part of Olympic National Park. We'll take our time and enjoy the drive to Hoquiam, Washington. From there we will be exploring the Quinalt Rainforest portion of the National Park. We have slightly altered our plans for the last California portion of the trip but still plan on being home on August 27th.