We made it to the Olympics!

Kalaloch beach

Tide pool at low tide on Beach #4

Hanging out in the Olympic Mountains

We were fortunate enough to spend 4 days exploring Olympic National Park.  What a unique and amazing place!  95% of this park, located on the Olympic Peninsula, has been designated wilderness area.  For this reason, highway 101 runs along the outskirts of the park with a few spur roads leading into the park, but most of the park is untouched by any kind of development.  This is awesome!  The coast, forest, and mountain ecosystems work together to create a diverse and impressive place.  The Olympic Peninsula is home to Native American tribes – Hoh, Makah, Quileute, Quinault, Skokomish and several others.  It was really interesting to learn about how these tribes built such a rich culture using all that this land has to offer.  We started off on the western-most part of the park on the coast called Kalaloch (pronounced clay-lock).  The campground was right on the ocean and provided us with great access to the beach.  Unfortunately we had no access to showers!  So we went our longest stretch yet without a shower – 3 days.  We had baby wipes and good deodorant! J  This campground was the first place people really seemed shocked by our South Carolina license plate.  It ended up being a wonderful conversation starter.  We met a grandpa hippie named Randy from Ohio who was traveling the country with his wife in their van.  We met a Twilight fan and elementary behavior specialist from Seattle traveling the Peninsula with her mom.  We met a nice gentleman from Charlotte who loves the Outer Banks as much as we do.  In fact, he was headed to spend a week in Buxton with his brother.  Everyone was so interested in chatting with us about our journey.  We woke up early in the morning to meet a park ranger at Beach #4 (apparently they need some help coming up with more creative names for their beaches – they have beach #1, #2, #3, and #4).  The ranger led us on a journey through the intertidal region at low tide.  It was AWESOME!  We learned so much about the coast ecosystem and got to see some really cool creatures.  The ranger was new to the area but already knew so much.  I had fun chatting with him about his journey to becoming a park ranger and all of the fun places he has traveled.  Later that day we headed to the Hoh Rain Forest.  This part of the park is sandwiched between the coast and the Olympic Mountain range and receives 140 inches of rainfall per year.  It was filled with 200-300 foot trees covered in ferns, mosses, lichens, and fungi.  Everything was really green and really fuzzy.  It was fascinating to learn about this temperate rain forest and all of the unique plants and animals that inhabit it.  It started raining while we were in the rain forest (big surprise, right?) and continued raining for the next day.  This didn’t stop us though.  We had a good day exploring and headed to the Kalaloch Lodge to grab a drink.  I had a nice warm latte while Jake warmed up with some microbrews.  We enjoyed chatting with the bartender who was born and raised in Forks.  She said the Twilight series upped their number of summer visitors from 40 per month to 30,000 per month.  She also told us that Stephenie Meyer (the author) Googled “the wettest, most depressing town in America” and Forks is what she found.  You have to drive through Forks on highway 101 to get to the other side of Olympic National Park.  I stopped to take a picture at the “Welcome to Forks” sign for my co-worker Wendy and that was about it for Forks.  The next day the rain stopped and the clouds cleared just in time for us to head up to Hurricane Ridge – named for the 120 mph winds they often get.  On our way up we stopped at a pull-off and could see the Port Angeles waterfront, the Strait of Juan De Fuca, the San Juan Islands, and Victoria, B.C.  It was beautiful!  After a steep drive up a very curvy road we were rewarded with a 180 degree view of the Olympic Mountain range.  It was unbelievable!  The park rangers said it was the first time the mountains had been visible in a few days because of the weather.  We met a ranger to learn about the endemic species of the park – animals that only exist in Olympic National Park – so cool!  Then we met another ranger who took us on a short walk on Hurricane Ridge and shared her wealth of knowledge about the ridge, its trees, and its wildlife.  I really enjoy park rangers and I love learning everything I can from them.  Unlike Jake, Friday, and those close to me who think I ask way too many questions, the park rangers LOVE my questions and they always have an exciting answer for me.  (I love Jake and Friday dearly and admit that I do ask a LOT of questions.)  After a couple hours on Hurricane Ridge we headed down to Lake Crescent to meet another ranger for a walk to Marymere Falls.  The veteran ranger at Lake Crescent couldn’t believe how enthusiastic we were (I was) about the park and all of the cool things it has to offer.  He said he was going to take us on the road to promote the park.  The walk to the falls was a lot of fun.  It was pouring rain so we got to wear our rain gear.  Jake was really excited about this.  Our rain gear is so great that I think we could have actually jumped in Lake Crescent and still stayed dry.  We were joined by a very sweet retired couple from Wisconsin.  The ranger entertained us well on the hike and the waterfall was beautiful.  She even taught us the waterfall trick – you stare at one spot in the falls for 30 seconds and then move your eyes to the rock wall.  The wall and all of the ferns growing out of it look as if they are crawling.  It is so cool!  Give it a try next time you hike to a waterfall – it is sure to provide at least a good 5 minutes of entertainment.  On the walk back we got to see a HUGE banana slug!  This was way more exciting than it sounds when I type it.  Maybe you had to be there!  Olympic National Park was one of the most unique places we’ve ever had the opportunity to explore.  I get to come back with mom and Diane for a couple days in July and I’m really looking forward to it.  Now we’re off to Orcas Island (in the San Juan Islands) for a few days.  We hope all is well where you are!

Rainy hike to Marymere Falls

A BANANA SLUG!!!!