The full scoop! Be warned, there are a lot of pictures. But you all like pictures, yes?? Okay, and there's some story too, so that's a good thing. Because pictures by themselves are only semi-boring if you don't have the information to go along with them.
But then Eric was all "noooo, I don't really want to go to Canada" So I suggested more trip options, each one cool (IMO) and he was just 'blah' about them all. We FINALLY decided on a last minute camping trip on the Olympic Peninsula. We'd camp on the beach, drive over to Hoh Rainforest, hike, come back to the beach and camp there again, hike up to Hole in the Wall and drive home, hitting up hot springs along the way.
We KINDA followed that plan. Kinda. Like, the skeleton of it. But there was so much we saw that we wanted to do. It kinda makes for good reasons to go back :D
I kinda knew it was shaping up to be a glorious weekend when this was our view heading out to the peninsula and the lower one was the view looking back. The skies only got clearer over the next two day, though it did rain on us Saturday night (like... drizzles).
Floating volcano!
Our goal was to make it to Port Angeles before 7pm in order to grab our bear canister for camping and register for the spot we wanted. We failed this goal by about 5 minutes due to a variety of factors. I choose to blame Eric's desire to check out three different neighborhoods with houses for sale in them. Ahem.
So we didn't get the bear canisters, but the park ranger DID inform us (in the time that he could have registered us.... grrr) that we could self register as long as we weren't bringing food or had our own bear canister. We self registered, overpaid because we only had a 20$ bill (and thank goodness we had that) and headed out to dinner in Port Angeles.
The city/town was okay, we passed up on the Italian place and chose Mexican, which we enjoyed. Then we got back onto HWY 101 and kept heading west. The highway ends up following every little curve of Crescent Lake, which was really cool, but slowed us down a bit. Not that we were in a crazy rush to get anywhere at that point. Even in the slowly setting sun, we could tell the lake was a pretty place.
The road curved around the northern edge of the mountains and started heading south. We ignored the spur going out to the most northwestern edge of Washington and headed down to 110, a turn off just north of Forks, WA. We were in logging country, and groves of trees on the side of the road proudly proclaimed when they were last cut down, when they were planted, and when they were next set to be logged. It was nice to see that they were reseeding and waiting. Hurray for land management!
110 went further west, down into more Olympic National Park, and to the coast and Rialto Beach. I was dismayed to find this sitting in the parking lot.
We parked in the day use area (the camper parking lot was PACKED) and scoped out a campsite on the beach. The sun had set, it was well after 9 pm, but we could still easily see. This half light (I'm really LOATHE to call it twilight... curse SMeyers for ruining an otherwise awesome word for me) lasted for well into the night.
An Indian reservation was just south of us and they were setting off fireworks as we set up camp. A light drizzle started as we put up the rain fly. We went for a quick walk down the beach, it was low tide then crawled into the tent and fell asleep listening to the roaring and pounding surf.
The next day dawned MUCH brighter. We had camped on a slope and it was weird to constantly wake up and find that you'd slid down your camping pad and the contact of the sleeping bag on the tent wall was pulling in moisture. But we didn't feel any of the stones that we slept on. Hurray for camping pads! Totally worth it.
We packed up camp pretty quickly, and just in time as a park ranger arrived. I say that, only because we technically weren't supposed to be where we were. The designated camping spot was a mile north on the beach. I think that has more to do with hygiene for day use visitors, but I figure all we did was sleep. We used the parking lot bathrooms so I'm not worried. The tent was still damp so we loosely folded it and stuffed it into the trunk with the rain fly and tarp we were using as a footprint. Thankfully we did have bananas, trail mix and beef jerky for breakfast and with that being munched on, we set off back to 101 for further south adventures.
This was the point at which we hit Forks well and truly. Forks is the town where "Twilight" is based. They filmed there a bit and it has since become a mecca for any fans of the books and movies and the town is DEFINITELY taking advantage of it. Their main industries are logging and Twilight. Seriously. The plan had been to grab lunch to go from Forks and make our way to Hoh Rainforest but I couldn't bring myself to stop in town for fear of being identified as a fangirl. And there were fangirls. On Ever. Single. Streetcorner. Faces of Bella and Edward stared out at me from store windows. A sign similar to fire danger joyfully proclaimed that 'vampire danger' was at an all time peak. They even had "Twilight Firewood".
No. Really.
Needless to say, we did not stop for food and instead continued along, hoping against hope that there would be a small establishment outside of town that had not caved to commercialization. We hit the turn off for Hoh Rainforest, sans lunch. At this point, Eric said, "Let's keep driving and see what's further down the road." Sure enough, a sign pointing south said Kalaloch had food and gas in 21 miles. Envisioning a small coastal town with many wonderful quaint establishments, we kept on.
101 twisted and turned, we really weren't oriented to exactly where on the coast we were located, when suddenly, BAM. Ocean hit us. It was brighter, it was sunnier. And the beaches here were sandy and flat and kind of right off a cliff from the road.
We kept driving, hit the Kalaloch Campground, drove past it, and realized that was Kalaloch There was no town. Well, there was a campground, and a lodge with an old fashioned pump and a general store. We kept driving. Eric suggested we go all the way down to Aberdeen. I respectfully told him NO. We saw a sign for Beach Three, then for Beach Two. Suddenly, Eric went, "STOP AT BEACH ONE! IT'S BEACH ONE!"
So we did. Because, why the hell not? It was our weekend, we could do whatever we wanted.
Eric bounds through the forest trail down to Beach One. It's the first beach, and therefore, the best (by his logic).
Eric had sneakers on, but I was in sandals. So I braved the water more than he did.
We explored the area a little bit, then hopped back into the car and drove back up 101, intending to stop at Kalaloch and get food for lunch. The lodge had a little general store with nothing perfect for a lunchtime meal but we made do.
It was a pretty place and they had cabins right on the bluff overlooking the ocean. Intrigued, we went to the front desk and inquired about vacancies (they had none and were booked through October..) and pricing (2-300/night for a cabin!). We then realized there was an actual restaurant but shrugged it off, we'd already eaten. Now I'm kinda wanting to go back for my birthday weekend...
We thought we'd check out Kalaloch Campground, but the campground was completely full ( !!!) All 140 campsites booked solid. There went our second plan. We had seen that there was going to be a ranger led tidepool hike at 8:30 the next morning at Beach 4 so we went there this afternoon (now that we weren't staying in the area).
Beach 4 was pretty as well and we headed down the path and into the sand. I gleefully removed sandals and skipped down the beach.
It was approaching high tide but we didn't let that stop us from beach combing and finding things in the tidepools.
Eric was not in a tidepool.
But these anemones were!
We scrambled up onto some rocks that were rapidly being surrounding by encroaching surf from the rising tide and explored quite a bit and watched the waves crash.
Knowing that Eric needed to get off the rocks sooner, rather than later (he was in sneakers, after all) we headed back to the sand. I easily rolled up my pants and hopped across, but Eric's plan of rock jumping quickly was discouraged when he realized how big of a leap and how deep the water was where he planned to get across.
So he went around to the original spot, which had been semi dry when we went across and was now under about a foot of water, took off his shoes, rolled up his pants, and timed it utterly wrong and ended up soaking the bottom of his jeans. HA!
We sat on a broad, sunny rock while he dried and watched the surf, the crazy people who stayed out where I was sure they might get swept away, and the little kids who were running rampant in a rip tide zone. Eric commented that I was acting like a mother already, good grief, I was so concerned with everyone else's safety.
We did see several bald eagles flying above us and that was pretty neat.
I found a little crab near where we were sitting and played with him for a while.
After being in the sun for a good long while we headed back up to the car and started north again. There was a sign for a giant cedar tree so we decided to stop in and see what that was. I was disappoint. It was the remnants of a tree, still cool, but not really fully alive any more. It was missing its top half.
It was, however, very gnarly, and reminded me of a tree from a fairy tale or from Pan's Labyrinth.
You could even walk up and go inside of the tree. Looking up was pretty amazing.
That was a quick trip and from there we went north again to Ruby Beach.
The beach was located at a point where Cedar Creek meets the ocean. The creek actually has pooled up just before it comes out and it created a somewhat shallow swimming area. This was very popular.
At this point it was basically high tide but Eric still had fun climbing on rocks. And the sea stacks were also very impressive.
Eric had fun skipping stones. The whole beach was comprised of perfect skipping stones.
Done with beaches, we decided to go back to the Hoh Rainforest and do one of the shorter hiking trails in the area, as opposed to the longer 10 mile one I was originally planning on.
We saw more deer!
We also discovered that we could have gotten food along the road to the rainforest. Oh well. I enjoyed the beaches.
At the visitors center, we did the short 3/4 mile Hall of Mosses trail and generally discovered that the Hoh Rainforest doesn't look much different than the Snoqualmie-Mount Baker National Forests.
Maple grove leaves.
This is a nurse log. Basically, a fallen tree rots and serves as a nutritious source for new seedlines to grow up. As the seedling grows, its roots branch around the fallen log. When the fallen log finally rots away, it creates an arch of roots in the new tree.
This fallen tree was over 160ft long.
We saw that there was a campground at Hoh and the sign had said it was full, but on a whim I decided to see if it was ACTUALLY full, or just 'full'. Imagine my happiness when we discovered there were PLENTY of campsites available. We self registered (again, donating more money to the park service since we only had a $20 bill for a $12 campsite) and left my folding chair and the tarp in the space to show it was 'owned'. We then decided to brave Forks and get dinner.
Dinner was uneventful, we were going to try for Chinese, reasoning that a non-american style food would have no reason to cash in on the Twilight franchise, but we were sorely mistaken when the windows of both chinese places in town had faces of pale actors staring out at passersby.
We instead picked the burger place. It too had Twilight stuff. But it was inside. And not so obvious. The burgers were pretty good and we headed back up to camp after a stop at the local camp supply store for firewood, a lighter, and firestarter. The sun was beginning to sink and cast everything in a lovely golden glow.
Hoh River
HWY 101
Driving back up Hoh River Road to the campground.
Our campsite.
River valley in shadow, the mountaintop still has sun.
There was an ampitheater at the campground, but no fireside program that night. I was disappointed.
We got the fire going (well, Eric did) but had no s'mores to roast. Ah well. The fire was still enjoyable.
We wanted to stargaze (we were miles from any major city, the visibility was already phenomenol) but the damn twilight just lasted forever. This was taken nearing 10 pm. We were exhausted, thought about setting an alarm to get up, but ended up just going to bed.
Eric remembered that we could combine our sleeping bags together into one large bag and we did that, enjoying the cuddling. I slept very well. Hurray for REI designing their sleeping bags so their mens and womens can combine.
The next morning dawned clear and bright again, if a bit chilly since we were in the mountain. We packed up camp, taking our time and enjoying the fresh air.
On the drive back, I wanted to stop at Sol Duc Hot Springs and spend an hour or two soaking in the mineral water both as general liesure and as a way to avoid the worst of the traffic going through town because of the holiday.
Sol Duc's turn off on 101 is halfway between Forks and Port Angeles (and right before you hit Lake Crescent). It's a winding road along a mountainside that takes you up Sol Duc River and deposits you into a lovely valley. We stopped at a salmon run exhibit for fun and then continued on.
And we saw more deer! I wish the pics I got weren't blurry, because some of them looked neat.
Sol Duc Resort was ... a resort on National Park property and also had cabins. It looked pretty enough, though after visiting I'd want to go in the off season. Too crowded for me.
There were a few different temperature pools and I'm now not sure if the temperature was artificially heated or natural. I know the larger pool was chlorinated and not heated. There were two smaller unchlorinated jacuzzi like pools, one at about 100 deg F (37 C) and the other at 106. There was also a wading shallow pool for little kids. The staff rotated the pools to rest them and test the water (yay for health safety)
There were a TON of international guests, which was pretty cool.
Some neat information about the hot springs.
We grabbed lunch at the hot springs and dried off in the sun then got back on the road, noting new locations for potential hikes.
The sky was so clear and sunny I knew Lake Crescent was going to be gorgeous and I was not disappointed. On a whim, we stopped in a day use picnic area to snag some pictures.
Fun fact: Lake Crescent is listed as Washington's second deepest lake with an official recorded depth of 674 ft. However, when a phone company was laying cable, they recorded depths of well over 1000 ft. The 674 ft number was determined by a surveying company many years ago, and that was the deepest their instruments could measure. So... incredibly deep lake!
We got through Port Angeles relatively quickly, even given a minor traffic reroute, and soon we were back in Kingston and waiting in line for the ferry. This was our lovely view.
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