Mary and I went to Olympic National Park August 23-27. We had been wanting to go there for a while, but never had enough time. Mary worked the last two holidays (Memorial Day and Independence Day) and so she had a total of 3 days of comp time. We decided to take advantage of this by taking a 5 day weekend trip to Olympic. In addition to the pictures below, check out the Olympic National Park page in the gallery.

Thursday, August 23

We had a very early flight out of San Jose, and rather than ask one of our friends to drive us or rely on a taxi, we too the Light Rail and Airport Flier Shuttle. The first train was at 5 AM which gave us just enough time to connect with the shuttle and arrive at SJC an hour before our flight. We flew on Alaska Air and arrived in Seattle by 8:30 AM. We rented a car from Alamo, which turned out to be a Chevy HHR. It’s a pretty strange car, and not one I would ever buy, but it wasn’t too bad. Ours was orange (picture on right). We were planning to drive up to Seattle and take a ferry across to the Olympic Peninsula. The agent at Alamo warned us that there was a lot of construction on I-5 and suggested we drive around the South end of the Puget Sound. We took his advice.

The drive took us about 3 hours, not counting stops for snacks. We stopped in Sequim Bay for a short break and to see some views of the Sound. From there we drove to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and hiked a short nature trail to the Dungeness Spit (picture from the trail on left). A spit is a long, narrow stretch of land usually at a point where a river meets a large body of water. In this case, the spit is 5.5 miles long and juts out into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. There’s a lighthouse near the end of the spit, but we didn’t have a chance to hike out that far. We did have a chance to see some birds, climb on some driftwood, and stack some rocks to make “rock art” (picture on right) which we learned about in Vancouver, BC many years ago. For more pictures from Sequim Bay and Dungeness NWR, check out my Olympic Peninsula gallery page.

We continued on to Port Angeles where we stopped at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center. From there we drover further west to Lake Crescent. Lake Crescent is a beautiful lake surrounded by green mountains (picture on left). We had a snack at a rocky beach, then hiked to Marymere Falls. The hike to Marymere Falls starts by the Storm King Ranger Station at the shore of Lake Crescent and goes for about a mile into some nice old-growth forest. At the end of the trail is the 90′ Marymere Falls (picture on right). There’s a nice overlook about 1/3 of the height of the falls affording a great view of the falls and the grotto below. For more pictures of the lake and the falls, check the Lake Crescent section of my gallery.

After the hike to Marymere Falls, we drove back to Port Angeles. We check in to the All View Inn, had dinner at the Corner Cafe, and turned in for the night.

Friday, August 24

On Friday morning we checked out of the All View Inn and headed for the Hurricane Ridge area of the park. After a brief stop at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center we hiked the 1.6 mile Hurricane Hill Trail. This trail is full of wildflowers and stunning views (see picture at top of this post). We also spotted some wildlife, including a Cooper’s hawk and some cute chipmunks. We had a snack at the top of the hill (picture on left). The chipmunks at the top of the hill are very brave. I imagine some people must be feeding them. Too bad. After Hurricane Hill we drove along an 8 mile dirt road to Obstruction Point. Near the parking area we discovered a really large marmot, but didn’t manage to get any good pictures. From there we hiked for a bit along Lillian Ridge where we saw even more wildflowers and awesome mountain vistas. We saw another marmot along the trail, but I failed once again to capture it on film. After the hike we drove back to the visitor center to get some drinks, then drove all the way to Forks. We had dinner at Pacific Pizza and spent the night at the Olympic Suites. For more pictures from the day, check out Hurricane Ridge in the gallery.

Saturday, August 25

Today we decided to visit two of the rain forest areas of the park, the of which was Sol Duc. We started with the main attraction for this area, Sol Duc Falls (on left). The falls are really nice. It’s sort of like 3 falls in one. The hike out to the falls is 0.8 miles through the rain forest. We also took a stroll around the 0.6 mile Ancient Grove Loop. Next we drove down to the Hoh Rain Forest. On our way in, we saw a family of raccoons bathing in the Hoh River. The two main trails in the rain forest are the Spruce Nature Trail (1.2 miles) and the Hall of Mosses (0.8 miles). You get to both of these from a small loop trail right next to the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center. The rain forests are so lush and everything is covered with moss. It is quite an amazing place. On the way our we saw a salamander crossing the road. It moves so slowly, so we decided to stop and move it off the road. For dinner we went to In Place in Forks and spent another night at the Olympic Suites. For more pictures check the Sol Duc and Hoh Rain Forest gallery pages.

Sunday, August 26

We spent most of the day along the Olympic coast. We started out by driving to the Mora Visitor Center and hiking a 0.3 mile loop to James Pond. I had read that beavers lived in the pond, but it is so over grown that I doubt they live here anymore. Next we made a stop at Rialto Beach (left) where we saw some beautiful coastline and 3 bald eagles. We drove over to La Push and watched the birds and seals near the boat harbor then hiked out to Second Beach. After that we drove farther south the the Kalaloch area of the park. Our first stop there was Ruby Beach where a 0.2 mile stroll brought us to a lovely beach with lots of seastacks (columns of eroded rock) along the shore and out at sea. Next stop was a short walk to the Big Cedar and finally Beach 4. At Beach 4 we explored the tide pools. The tide wasn’t so low when we were there, but we still saw lots of sea stars (right) and anemones. All the beaches along the coast were chock full of driftwood, piles and piles of the stuff. After a full day along the coast we headed for Lake Quinault where we spent our final night at the Quinault River Inn. For more pictures check out the Olympic Coast page in the gallery.

Monday, August 27

This was our final day at Olympic National Park. We spent it in the Quinault area of the park. We started out with a hike to Lake Irely. It was another hike through lush rain forest, but this time maybe a little too lush. The trail was muddy and flooded in places. We eventually turned back without making it to the lake. Nearby we did the 0.5 mile Maple Glade Trail and the 0.2 mile trail to Quinault Big Cedar. We stopped for lunch at the Quinault Internet Cafe in Amanda Park then drove down to the south side of Lake Quinault. Our last hike was the Rain Forest Nature Trail in the Olympic National Forest. Part of the trail follows the Willaby Creek Gorge. We took a short detour to see Merriman Falls in Willaby Creek. We were hoping to see some otters in the creek, but we did not. We did see an osprey land near a large nest on the other side of the gorge. With our final hike complete, we once again drove south around the Puget Sound and back to the SEA-TAC airport to catch our flight home. For more pictures, see the Quinault section of the gallery.

Overall, it was a great trip to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. The park has so much diversity: alpine vistas, old-growth forest, scenic lakes, lush rain forest, rocky coastline and sandy beaches. For someone used to California parks, it was amazing to see so much greenery and flowing rivers in the middle of the Summer. The only real disappointment was the limited wildlife we encountered. Maybe we’ll do better next time.