Road Trip: Olympic National Park

Another new adventure for this road trip: Olympic National Park in Washington State. It is HUGE. We really just got a little taste of it because there is so much to see. Like Yellowstone, there is a big variety of landscapes. We enjoyed the beauty, but there was A LOT of driving in between. And there are huge mountains in the middle of the park that make it difficult to get anywhere quickly.

Our first stop:

Lake Crescent

It was a beautiful spot to sit and eat our picnic lunch.

We had bought some fruit from a roadside stand.

They had lots of these cute cherry pairs together.

Guess which town is right by Olympic?

Forks!!!

Took me back to my Twilight-loving days.

Next we made a quick stop at Salmon Cascades.

It wasn't the season for salmon to be there,

but was still a pretty river.

The forests here feel so different than in Carolina.

Bigger and more evergreens.

Next we did a hike to Sol Duc Falls.
It's a two-mile round trip hike, with

about 200 feet of elevation gain.

A triple waterfall and is the really pretty 

reward at the end of the hike.

And you get to walk next to water part

of the time, which I love.

Next, we drove to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.

Look at those views!

There was a cute little deer right there,

completely unbothered by people taking a selfie with it.

I really wanted to do the Hurricane Hill hike.

Caroline wasn't super excited about it,

but she was a good sport.

It was one of our more difficult hikes.

It was about 3 miles round trip,

but had about 700 feet of elevation gain.

We were feeling that. Ha!

It took us almost two hours.

There were pretty wildflowers along the way.

And cute chipmunks.

That didn't try to crawl on us.

We walked right by snow!

In July!

Oh, those mountains.

There was some sort of groundhog or marmot out there.

And we saw this deer chilling down the mountain.

Quite the views up there.

Another USGS marker

Oh, I love taking in all the mountain views and

just enjoying time out in nature.

Woo hoo!

More cute chipmunks on the way down.

A cool bird of prey in the tree.

More pretty wildflowers.

On the drive down the mountain,

we saw lots of deer.

And you come to a lookout where you can see the Sound.

So pretty.

As with other national parks, it was hard to find

an affordable place to stay nearby.

We drove to Hoodsport and stayed the night

in a cute and quirky little place called Creekside Inn.

It was about a two hour drive,

but it took us in the direction we wanted to go 

to see other parts of the park the next day.

It was just right for us for the one night.

The next day we got up and headed to the coast,

another part of Olympic National Park.

It is SOOO different than the Carolina Coast.

I hadn't really been around evergreens

that were right on the beach.

It's a totally different feel.

It was a cloudy day.

I hear there are many of those.

Some of the pics look black and white!

We stopped at Kalaloch Beach 4.

There weren't many people around.

We got to see tide pools with some anemones.

We got a couple glimpses of some blue skies.

I thought this was hilarious that 

google maps showed us out in the ocean

while we were exploring on the shore.

We don't get much driftwood on the Carolina coast, either.

There was LOTS of it.

I guess that'll happen when you have trees right on the shore.

Even though Care Bear was in her crocs,

she thought it was a good idea to climb this rock.

As the responsible adult, I agreed. Ha.

And I took pictures.

She made it to the top!

I had fun scoping out a couple seals/sea lions swimming in the area.

This is not my perfect vision of a beach day.

I need some sunshine and warmth.

But it was fun to visit the other coast.

And it definitely has it's own beauty.

On the east coast, we have hurricane evacuation routes.

Here they have TSUMANI evacuation routes.

Which seem scarier.

Before we left Olympic,

I squeezed in one last little hike.

Maybe it was more of a walk.

Super easy and casual.

It was the Quinault Rainforest Trail.

It is a one mile loop with hardly any elevation gain.

It took us half an hour.

But it was cool!

Lots of lush trees all around.

And apparently I was missing Andrew 

by this point, because I kept seeing heart leaves everywhere.

Care Bear and I both came to the realization that

Washington is named for George Washington when

we saw his profile on the road signs.

Maybe we're a little slow... :)