Diversified - Day 5 Olympic National Park

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Day 5

Diversified



Diversified – ‘being composed of different elements’. I cannot think of a better way to describe the Olympic National Park. In one day we traveled from the mountains, to the city, to the lake, to the beach, to the rain forest, to more beaches and beyond. There are not many places in the world where you can see so many different elements or ecosystems in one small area. Diversified – yes that is a good description.



Today began early for me, as all the other days have – around 4am. I just cannot seem to sleep past 4 regardless of how tired I feel. I guess I am still not accustomed to the Pacific Time zone (or I miss my own bed and pillow). After getting everyone else up (yes, I let them sleep later than 4) we grabbed breakfast, packed up for the next hotel and began our day – and it was a long one.



The rain was not near as bad as the weather reports had predicted for today, thankfully. In fact it was pretty much the same as all the other days – a little rain, a lot of clouds and hardly any sun. I have come to the conclusion that Northern Washington hardly ever sees blue skies – it is always cloudy. And the sunsets must be spectacular here - because one rarely even sees the sun, so when you do see it and can see it setting, it must be magnificent. We would not know. Today was also the first day we were able to take our jackets off for any length of time. I really do not mind the cool temps, but wet and cool is not the best feeling.



We spent the day in Olympic National Park – mainly the west side – attempting to see as much as we could for it was our last day in the area. We started at Lake Crescent. It is a huge lake that goes on for miles. The lake itself is very clear, deep and bright blue. This area receives much rain throughout the year and is at the edge of the rain forest, which means the surroundings are lush and green – just beautiful. We debate hiking to a waterfall, but time is not in our favor today, so we opt to skip it (of course the kids were happy to hear that). We then move on to the Sol le Duc area of the park. This was also a lush green area – deep in the forest. We go down as far as the Salmon Rapids. This is a place where the salmon literally jump up the rapids trying to get up stream. But we were there the wrong time of year to see them – we will just have to come back in the fall (wishful thinking).



There are no roads through the park, so getting to an area requires you to go around the outskirts of the park and take the various roads in to the areas to visit and then back out those same roads to continue on. So it does take a while to get from one area to the other. That is why we had to eliminate some of the planned activities for the day (such as hikes – again the kids were not disappointed). We were also trying to get to the beaches at low tide to find the tide pools with sea life in them.



The next area we visit is the Rialto Beach. No sand, no palm trees, no people. We did not need sunscreen, sunglasses, swimsuits or flip-flops. A jacket and camera was all we needed to enjoy this beach. It was a short hike down to the beach and much driftwood to climb over. The ocean had sea stacks close to the beach edge and low-lying clouds around. It was a bit eerie – sort of like the scenes from Jurassic Park 3. But it was a very interesting contrast to what we are use to on the southern east coast. The beach it self was all rocks. And walking on a rock beach is much harder than walking on a sand beach. We explore a bit and then move on to the next stop.



The Hoh Rain Forest was next on the list and in order of the route around the park. We travel into the forest and eat lunch at one of the picnic areas on the grounds. Then we take a hike into the rain forest. We find that everything is green – everything that does not grow green is covered by a green moss. It is hard to capture the beauty of the rain forest through pictures, but made a few attempts. Time is moving faster than we are, so we decide to leave the rain forest and move on to the strip of beaches at the southern end of the park.



First stop is Ruby beach – we arrive exactly at low tide time. We make our trek down the path and climb over the driftwood to get to the beach. We see more sea stacks and explore around those for this is the beach that is suppose to have the tide pools with star fish and sea anemones. Stephen braves hiking on a log across a river that feeds into the ocean and explores that side of the beach, but did not find much. Donald also tries to hike across that log, but turns around realizing he cannot do it. I did not even try – I knew better. We decide to explore the other side of the beach and the last sea stack we try has tons of sea anemones and starfish all around it. It was exciting to see for the most we ever see at the eastern beaches are the small brown starfish. These were bright, big and colorful. The kids loved it and the adults did too. With the tide now back coming in, we had to be extra careful to not get stuck on this sea stack and quickly took a few pictures before heading to safe ground. Before leaving the area, Stephen climbed to the stop of a very tall sea stack – with little effort required. He loves it and it makes me nervous. Boys!



We then head further down the coast with glimpses at other beaches with a final stop at Beach #1. The path down to this beach goes through a burl forest. A burl is a big knot on a tree, but burls have some unique patterns and colors in it, making them the desired wood of wood turners. So Donald was ooing and ahing - dreaming of what he could make out of those. This beach has more sand than the others, making walking on the beach an easier task than the other beaches. We then headed for the town of Ocean Shores – our destination for the night, and not a moment too soon. We are realizing that we have a lot of ‘car time’ on this trip and it is starting to take its toll.



Olympic Park is big, huge, enormous – it is Olympic in size. You cannot see it in a day. We tried to see it in 2 days, but missed several areas. I am still amazed at the lack of people in the park. We are use to waiting for parking spaces or not finding one because it is so crowded in the parks and sometimes passing/meeting hundreds of people on the trails. Here there are hardly any people. We had some of the beaches to ourselves and drove miles and miles without seeing a soul. It is certainly more enjoyable without all the people, but weird. I am not sure if it is because it is early in the summer season with school still in session here or if it is like that all the time. Even the beach town we are currently staying at is almost deserted. So unusual – most beach towns are packed with people.



Tomorrow we continue are tour of beaches and still hoping to see a whale or two. We will be traveling down the Oregon cost (another full day in the car). As the saying goes, I will need a vacation after my vacation.

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Comments

[Mary Jean Wilkins]

Carol and Dot and Sherri came by to see me this morning. Carol said she had never seen a whale while on the ferry boat, but said she was sorry you all didn't see more of Victoria. That is her favorite place. I love your tales of the adventeres you all are having and I loved the star fish too. Beautiful colors, didn't even know they came in different colors. Harold went to work today, so I've looked at TV all day. Stay safe and I love you all!!