Finn & Reba Chronicles (formerly Adventures of Swirl's Serfs): Olympic National Park

Thursday, June 19, 2014

After the sort of bust of Mt. Rainier National Park (which I finally got to see it from the plane window on our way home), Olympic made up for it.

Hurricane Ridge

We started our day going the opposite direction I had planned and I‘m sure glad we did. We headed up US Hwy 101 to Port Angeles, WA. Our first stop was the Hurricane Ridge Visitor center. The drive up to Hurricane Ridge didn’t look that promising. We drove through rain, rain and more rain and eventually snow too. When we stopped at the ranger’s station, he promised it was better on top of the mountain. I didn’t know if I should believe him, especially since we drove through rain, fog and snow on our way. But he was right. The sun was actually shining on top. I got amazing pictures but this one is probably one of the best and I took it with my phone on panorama mode.

Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park

There were a ton of deer up there too.

Deer - Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park

Sol Duc Falls

After walking around a bit we decided to head to the next stop, Sol Duc Falls. Along the way we drove past Lake Crescent. Very beautiful! To get to Sol Duc Falls was a bit of a hike but the scenery on our way there was amazing. It wasn’t a terribly long hike (about a mile out to the falls) but well worth it when we saw this:

Sol Duc Falls - Olympic National Park

Rialto Beach at Sunset

Our next stop was the town of Forks. Forks is apparently famous because of the Twilight series of books. I guess the books take place in the town. The town is small, about three thousand people and some of the places seem to have catered to the Twilight fans but it seems like that fizzled out. A lot of empty store fronts. Anyways, Forks was our stop for the night. We stayed at this hotel/motel/apartment place. Nothing to exciting and very unorganized but I guess that is what happens out here in the sticks! Forks is about 15 miles from Mora and Rialto Beach. Rialto Beach is amazing. We went out there for the sunset and sat on the driftwood and watched the waves crashed…amazing:

Sunset - Rialto Beach - Olympic National Park

Rialto Beach at Low Tide

The next morning we went back out to Rialto Beach to hike out to the Hole-in-the-wall. It is about 1.5 miles up the beach. I hate walking on sand so it really was a lot of work but worth. Along the way we stopped at some tidal pools where we saw a bunch of starfish and sea anemones. They are so colorful.

Tidal Pools - Rialto Beach - Olympic National Park

That is really the main reason to walk out there. The Hole-in-the-wall is cool but the tidal pools are cooler!

Hole-in-the-Wall - Rialto Beach - Olympic National Park

Hoh Rainforest

Once we left the beach behind, we went to a rainforest…yes a rainforest. Hoh Rainforest to be exact. It was very interesting going from the beach to the rainforest but even more interesting is it never rained! LOL!