July 30, 31 – Chores and Rest

Two uneventful days and some much needed down time.

Yesterday being Saturday we went to check out some farmers markets.

Well the one in Port Angeles had about 10 booths and we were done in about 5 minutes. There was another one in Sequim about 10 miles down the road so off we went. That one had maybe 20 booths. Not much to interest Jennie so we just had some dumplings and BBQ beef for lunch and moved on.

Looking across to Vancouver Island.

We just spent the rest of the day doing chores. Our next campground is kind of remote so we stocked up on groceries at Walmart.

I went to get a much needed haircut. While talking to the lady I mentioned we had gone to the 3 Crabs restaurant. She agreed with us that it wasn’t very good  and it is mostly a tourist trap.

Today it was low tide at 9am so we did the short walk to the recreation area next door to walk the tide pools again.

 

Trying to find a place to wade across this creek without getting too wet.

 

Interesting texture on this seaweed.

Jennie almost got caught by a wave.

 

Heading back towards the campground.

Having a drink at the bar on the beach.

 

After lunch we had a nice long nap.

Tomorrow is our 29th wedding anniversary so of course it is a travel day. Seems I screwed up last year as well because we spent the evening waiting for the ferry off of Newfoundland.

We are having a nice steak dinner in the RV tonight instead.

Tomorrow we are off for a week at campground just outside Mount Rainier National Park. The reviews says that cell phones don’t work but that the camp WIFI does. We’ll see, so we may be out of touch.

The trip to Mount Rainier is a bit of a detour back south. We should have done it before the Olympic peninsula but after I had booked Olympic I read about Rainier so we had to go.

July 29 – Storm King and Sol Duc

When we woke up this morning we could hear the sound of a fog horn in the distance. Not a good sign. Thankfully it was just on the coast. Inland it was the usual sunny and high of 19C.

Today we went to two more parts of the National Park. The Storm King area is right next to Lake Crescent and Storm King Mountain. We first did a short hike along the lake shore and back through some tall trees.

 

This huge cedar tree had been completely burned out in the center but was still very much alive.

 

Next we did a 2 mile return hike to Marymere Falls. Most of this trail was flat which was very nice but weird for us as we have a hard time remembering the last flat trail we have done.

Coming from a creek only a few feet wide the falls were quite pretty for so little water.

 

Another hike up Storm King mountain was 4 miles and 2000 foot vertical. We declined.

After lunch we went to the Sol Duc area. The name comes from the  Quiliete Indian name for “sparkling waters”. So naturally we did another easy 2 mile return hike up the Sol Duc River to Sol Duc Falls.

 

We had to do a bit of rock hopping here.

The river does a bit of a left turn, over the falls and into a narrow ravine only about 10 feet across.

 

Great views from the bridge. Lots of spray but we only got a bit wet.

 

After all the hiking we have done in the last few days we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort.

 

There are 3 pools fed from a natural hot spring. One was a 106F and seemed to have mostly Japanese tourists in it. I guess they can take the heat. The largest and the one we used was at 104F. The shallow kiddie pool was at 99F. They also had a large regular water pool at 80F for cooling down. The smell of sulphur was pervasive but not overwhelming.

After the pool it was hard to keep awake for the 45 minute drive back home.

July 28 – Hurricane Ridge

We had been watching the weather forecasts all week and today seemed to be clearest. That meant it was time to drive up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

This is the most popular spot in the park and is supposed to give the best views of the mountains in the Olympic Range. Whereas yesterday we drove up a narrow dirt road to a 6000 foot mountain that we had to ourselves, today we drove up an absolutely smooth two lane highway to a 5000 foot mountain top that we shared with many hundreds of other people.

Looking back down at part of the road.

But the view. Wow! 180 degrees of snow covered mountain peaks on one side and the Juan de Fuca Strait and Vancouver Island on the other.

And the weather. Hurricane Ridge is known for its fierce winter storms and high winds. Today was sunny with very few clouds, a little haze in the distance and no wind. I would guess that the temperature was in the high teens. T shirt hiking weather.

They are not tall mountains (6000 – 8000 foot) but there are a lot of them.

Lots of deer just wandering the parking lot and trails.

 

We first did a short narrow 1/2 mile hike along a ridge up to Sunrise Point.

 

The non snow covered mountain about 1/3 in from the left in the picture below is where we were yesterday. I am actually glad it was cloudy there. The views would have paled in comparison and it was a completely different, very serene experience. Today was a lot of wow moments.

Back down  to the visitors center for our lunch on the balcony.

 

In the afternoon we did the 3 1/2 mile return 700 foot climb to the top of Hurricane Hill. This is a quite steep but very civilized trail. It is paved all the way. We even saw people push strollers to the top although I don’t know how because it sure tired us out.

The hike goes to the top of that peak just right of center just under 2 miles in the distance.

Lots of wildflowers in bloom.

The top was a huge alpine meadow covered in all kinds of small flowers in full bloom. We felt that Julie Andrews was going to burst from behind some tree and start singing.

 

 

We sat at the end of this trail in the picture below and just stared for quite a while.

 

Here is the view to the north of Port Angeles with its own long sand spit. 

Reluctantly heading back down.

Some spots on the hike were bad for her vertigo.

The steep climb back down on the pavement gave us both sore feet so we were done for the day.