Blogs from Olympic National Park, Washington, United States, North America

Today I moved to the north side of Olympic National Park. This side of the park gets less rain than the west side, so the forests have a different character. The trees are just as tall and old, but they are not as wide. They grow closer together and block out nearly all sunlight. The lush ground cover seen in the rain forests is gone, replaced by a carpet of ground moss and small ferns. The hanging moss mostly disappeared. This forest is the popular image of old growth trees, as majestic and still as a cathedral. I first drove into this forest along the Sol Duc River. The trees tower above the road, so all I wanted to do was look up. On a tight curvy road, this is a problem. I ended up doing ... read more

We were lucky enough to receive a warm welcome into Jenny Slater's condo for a comfy floor to throw our air mattress on and a local to show us a fun little local dive. Jenny worked with me (Jamey) at Flat Branch back in the day (round 1998/1999) and knew Jessica through the Moss Creek crew. Many old stories of Columbia, MO days of old were exchanged and enjoyed through out the evening. I was also lucky enough to get a hold of Jonty Barnes, a Brit, I knew as my London contact when visiting back in the 90's. He answered my call in his strong British accent "I went to a music festival with a Jamey Leonard" referring to our last time hanging out at Glastenbury in 1997. After a couple beers and a pleasant ... read more

My road trip to Olympic National Park and points in between. Photos at: Picasa Friday, June 17, 2011 As I tend to do for road trips, I left after work to get a few hours of driving in. Unfortunately, I didn't get to leave as early as I wanted due to the spectacular failure of something I take care of at work. Unfortunately, it took five hours (on a two hour SLA) to get connected with the vendor's technician (at 4 PM), and all he did was confirm the problem and have me enable more logging. A few knowledge transfer e-mails later, and I finally got out the door around 5:30. So much for getaway day. (While I was out, it was found to be a known bug and the system was patched. The tech said ... read more

Entry 27: Olympic Peninsula, Washington: Campbell Tree Grove to Seattle, Washington Sunday, August 22 - Monday, August 23, 2010 More Hospitality from the Col… Thoroughly exhausted, both physically and mentally, from our Colonel Bob peak summit in the Colonel Bob Wilderness of the Olympic National Forest, Scott and I knew that it was again around 6:30 p.m. We needed to decide where to spend the night, our options being to try and continue around east to the only part of the park that we were not able to examine: the Southeast corner. However, in looking at the road atlas, we realized that there was no “bottom part to the Hwy 101 loop,” and it would actually be over 100 miles of driving (past dark). The good karma was provided from the Colonel Bob once again, as ... read more

Entry 26: Olympic Peninsula, Washington: Colonel Bob Wilderness Area, Col. Bob Trail Hike and Camping Saturday, August 21- Sunday, August 22, 2010 The Colonel Bob Wilderness Area, maintained and run by the U.S. Forest Service, is almost 12,000 acres that is, according to the USFS and the 1964 Wilderness Act, are to be "retained in their primeval character ... and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions.” Colonel Bob is the critical untouched/unlogged (at least in modern times) buffer between the Olympic National Forest (heavily logged in many places, 2nd or 3rd generation forests in most places) and the pristine Olympic National Park. We’d chosen the place specifically for its location in our position on the loop, and the fact that we’d be hiking just outside the Olympic National Park borders, and its scores of ... read more

We stayed two nights in the Redwood Forest NP area. The park was along a salmon river but we did not see any salmon. If it was clear, we could have looked for whales off the coast but all the overlooks were clouded in as the vapor rose off the Pacific Ocean. Although it did not rain in the Redwoods, it was damp and cool. We left Monday June 28 for Crater Lake NP. We went into the park which had some parts over 8,000 feet with still lots of snow around the park and lake. We did not want to stay in the cold so we traveled on to just above Portland Oregon on Rt 5. On Tuesday, we traveled to Pollatch Washington which is about 30 miles north of Olympic Washington on Rt 101 ... read more