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June 2005

Olympic National Park is only a few hours out of Seattle.  It’s a wonderful drive that takes you into some fairly remote areas.  I stayed in Port Angeles right outside the park, but there are several places that have lodging including Forks which is more on the coast side and near the Hoh Rain Forest.  In Olympic, you will find mountains, coastline, rain forests, snow, beautiful lakes, large trees, and the list goes on.  It is one amazing place!

I came in during the afternoon around 3pm.  My first stop was the Hurricane Ridge visitor center right in Port Angeles to find out the latest information.  I decided to head to the Hoh Rain Forest and hit the coast that afternoon.  You take highway 101 through an amazing scenic route to get to this rain forest.  On your way, you will pass through Lake Crescent.  This lake is enormous and has a beautiful blue tint to the water, as many of the lakes do in the area.  This seems to be due to the minerals that wash down from the mountains into the lake.  After you get through the curvy roads around the lake, it opens up to a fairly strait shot over to Forks.  Here you can get lodging, food, and supplies. From there I headed South to the turn off to the Hoh Rain Forest. 

The Rain Forest
The road follows the Hoh River, which is a very scenic river, again with a really neat blue color to the water during the time of year I was there.  Once you start to get into the rain forest, you will see an amazing site that you can see nowhere else in the United States.  A true rain forest!  There are many trails that you can take into the forest.  Just a 5 minute walk on any trail along the road will leave you in awe and amazement with what you will see.  Large Spruce trees, lots of ground vegetation, mosses, and just a plethora of plant life.  There is a visitor center in this area as well.

The Coast
From the Hoh Rain Forest, I went South to a place called Ruby Beach.  I was lucky to hit this area in low tide because it made exploring the beach much easier and safer.  Be sure to know what the tide is going to be doing if you explore any of the beaches as it is very easy for the beach you walked on earlier to disappear and leave you stranded between the Pacific Ocean and the cliffs that line the shore.  At Ruby beach, and many of the other beaches, you will find incredible rock formations that have been left over from the millions of years of relentless erosion.  You can get up close and personal with these formations and it is absolutely a must see!

La Push

On my way back to Port Angeles, I took a left turn after Forks towards La Push.  La Push is an Indian Reservation and there are several trails along the way to access the beach.  Here you will find more rock formations that are an amazing sight just off of the coastline.  This is a fairly short trip off of 101 and I would recommend taking a drive that way.  I left Port Angeles at 4pm, and after doing all this I was back by 9pm.  However, I could have spent all day exploring the area and I recommend at least that.

Hurricane Ridge Road
This is a must do.  Hurricane Ridge road starts at the base of the mountains in Port Angeles and takes you up and into the park with a spectacular view of Mount Olympus at the end of the road.  Along the way you will see breathtaking views of the water looking out towards Victoria Canada.  The day I was there we had clouds that came in between the mountains, and I felt like I was three times as high as the clouds were, and I was only half way into the Hurricane Ridge road.  Notice the lava rock on the way up.  This area is not volcanic.  This lava rock actually started in the Pacific floor from a hotspot, and then over eons and eons as the continents shifted, it made its way inland and upward high up into these mountains.  That really amazed me!  Once you get to the top, there is a really neat visitor center that overlooks Mount Olympus.  When I was there in June, there was still snow.  It was an incredible view and I can’t wait to go back again!