More Washington National Parks

Olympic National Park

This park is the size of Rhode Island with multiple entrances around the perimeter.  No roads go through the park.  There are 3 distinct areas: the rugged coast, Olympic mountains, and rain forests.

I wanted to see all 3 areas, so we packed our rain gear, maps, snacks, waters and the dog and went exploring.  It ended up being 8 hours of mostly driving in the car to get to these spots.....not everyone was very happy with me.  It was a long, long day.  

The Rugged Coast:  We went to Cape Flattery which is the furthest northwest point in the lower 48 states.   It was a very long and winding drive and a very muddy walk down lots of wooden walkways and stairs to get to the point.  It was pretty once we got there, but Sam was a muddy dark brown dog at the end of that hike.

The HOH Rain Forest.  Bob just couldn't stop teasing me about how LUCKY we were that we had our rain gear! OK, I guess It doesn't rain in the rain forest in the summer.  We drove a very long way to see the dried moss on the Hall of Mosses trail. I thought it was still pretty cool - even though not everyone else (Bob) thought so.

Hurricaine Ridge.  There was construction at the start of the drive, which slowed the ride down quite a bit, but the Olympic mountains are beautiful.

The extent of our animal sightings are still slim....we did have a buck run right by us at Mt. Rainier, cute chipmunk at Mt. Olympus, a stuffed beaver in the visitor center.  Oh, and I did see a whale spout in the distance off Cape Flattery - no really!

This 670 year old Douglas Fir tree started to grow in 1293 and was cut down in 1963.  Based on everything we've seen, the rest of the tree was probably loaded on a speeding log truck.