Now hold on to your hats – because this park post contains some of the most diverse and amazing pictures!! I can’t oversell how impressed and blown away I was by this park. Mountains, rain forests, and beaches all in the same place. I was traveling for work and took an extra 3 days – and will remember it forever!!
My first stop was my campsite near Port Angeles. There was a short trail, and just look at this view. It was the promise of what was to come. Also I really like this picture of the tulips being blown around. Not sure why…
Here are a few more artsy ones I took. This trip was right after I had finally bought my own camera – an exact replica of the one I had been borrowing from my mom. Good choice! Had some fun playing with the zoom lens.
First stop on my first full day there was hurricane ridge. I was worried it wouldn’t be open yet since it was so early in the year – but I lucked out. They had JUST opened the roads. There was so much snow! Here are some pictures from the drive up.
Then my first iconic view of the Olympic mountain range! Stunning views
Then the picture I love – the snow pile in the back of the visitor’s center. Had to be over 10 feet tall. It was a whopping 28 degrees up there!
On my drive back down I saw this crazy looking bird and I rushed to take a picture so I could send it to my grandmother who is a big bird watcher! She was very envious of this! Called a Pacific “sooty” Grouse and that was its mating display! Catching all the ladies eyes!
The rest of my day was full of waterfall hikes, the first of which was Bridal Veil Falls. I have quickly learned that almost every park has a bridal veil falls – not a unique name. Now before I even get to the falls – just look at some of these pictures from along the hike! It was like a fairy tale!!
The falls is over 90 feet tall, and it was beautiful! Plenty of rain to keep its body in the spring.
Next stop was Sul Doc Falls. This hike also had some stunning pictures along the way. I love this one with the creek cascading over the rocks. I use it as my computer background on a regular basis. The color is just so rich!
This was a much bigger waterfall in volume, you could hear it thundering as you approached!
This day still had more left to offer as I continued my drive to Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point of the contiguous United States. Even more pictures I still sometimes can’t believe I took. The views were amazing.
I think by this time I had done about 7 miles of hiking. I drove on down to my selected campsite and grabbed some dinner. I decided sort of last minute to go down to the beaches for the sunset instead of waiting for the next day. I had seen pictures of the hole in the wall hike that you could walk through at low tide. Its about a 2 mile hike one way on sand (which is hard!). I decided to take a chance and do the hike and hope for the best on the tide when I arrived. I got lucky and the tide was still out when I got to the end! Here are some pictures from the beach walk.
Well worth the hike if you are ever there. Although after seeing it, the hike back was a bit miserable. I was exhausted. But I was prodded on by the prospect of getting to watch the sunset from the beach near my car. Olympic did not disappoint.
After a good nights sleep I explored a few more beaches in the area. I would admit though, that they were all sort of the same. I wish I had planned less time here and more time hiking in the rain forest, but now I just know for next time! I still got some cool pictures of the sea stacks.
Night number 3 was spent at a campground near Lake Quinalt. Here is the view from an adjacent campsite.
I spent the afternoon reading an entire book by the shore of the lake. It was a great winding down pass time. The next morning I packed up my stuff but stopped by the Hoh Rain Forest for my last day of hiking before work started. I went super early since I was still on east coast time, and it was a great decision! There were so many elk grazing in the fields. Check out some of these pictures
This was such a great park. I will be coming back and spending at least another week here exploring and taking pictures. From the rich colors in the rain forest, to the sharp contrasts in the sea stacks it was a beginner photographer’s dream!
Kelsey's Climb to 59 (+4) 