RigelZoo News: 25th Wedding Anniversary Trip

Olympic National Park

We spent several days in Olympic National Park. The park has three main areas: mountains, rain forest, and Pacific beaches. We got to experience all three.

First we drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the mountains of the National Park. At the Visitor’s Center at 5242 feet there was still a lot of snow. We hiked in the snow and threw a few snow balls. Dawn started it. : ) We had fun, but unfortunately it was partially cloudy so we didn’t have the spectacular view out across the Olympic mountains. We also saw a few deer on the way up and down the mountain and a very personable raven up on top (I’m sure he was a moocher). We also heard the whump-whump-whump of several spruce grouse on the way to the top.

View from Hurricane Ridge with clouds on the mountain tops

Dawn hiking through the snow on Hurricane Ridge

Us at the Visitor Center on Hurricane Ridge

We visited the rain forest areas on the western side of the mountains. The Hoh Rain Forest gets about 140 inches of rain a year (yes, that is almost 12 feet). The rain forest has very large trees and many of the trees are covered in clubmoss. We hiked several trails and saw several waterfalls. We hurried through the trails in the Hoh Rain Forest because we wanted to get to the Pacific Ocean coast before low tide.

Trees covered in clubmoss in the Hoh Rain Forest

Hiking by Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park

Trees growing in a row on a "nurse log"

(A long ago fallen tree that provided nutrients to other trees)

Dawn and a pair of huge trees in the temperate rain forest

We visited two beaches on the Pacific coast. We stayed in a cabin at the Kalaloch Lodge which is in the NP and is right on the Pacific Ocean. We didn’t get to explore the beach right at the lodge, but we did visit Beach 4 and Rialto Beach. Beach 4 is known for its tide pools so we got there before low tide. We saw a lot of anemones, sea stars, mussels, etc. We also found some interesting rock formations and stones on the beach. We also explored Rialto Beach which is further north. We hiked about a mile north on the beach to see some seastacks (jagged rock formations sticking out of the ocean) and to see the “hole in the wall” (a nature archway through a rock formation). It was difficult walking because in most areas the beach was just pebbles. This beach had a lot of drift wood and logs up at the top of the beach. There was so much wood that on our way back down the beach we tried to only walk on the wood. We traveled several hundred yards and only once had to use “Justin”. Dawn was carrying a piece of drift wood and I had to ask her what that was and she said it was “Justin”. Of course I was puzzled, so she continued…”Justin Case” (i.e., Just-In-Case). I got a good laugh out of that. Staying on the logs was fun, but was slow-going so we abandoned that after about 45 minutes (the sun was setting).