Northwest Passage Part 3: Olympic National Park

Sept 13th 

Some day I'll write a book about the best and worst of this country. I'll title it "fat Americans eating ice cream at the national park gift shop". 

Drove into Olympic national park and got instructions from park ranger on what to do. I used to plan out hikes before going National Parking, but now i like to ask the local experts.

Drove up to hurricane ridge, while it was cloudy. We drove above the fog and did a hike along the ridge, looking down on the fog filling the valleys between snowy peaks.

I think there's ocean in there somewhere, too

Then to the Sol Duc falls, a rainforest hike to a large waterfall.

After that, on to Forks, the town that was the setting for the twilight novels. Everything in town had something to do with the books. That must be so awesome for locals (/sarcasm). Not that we were there for that reason, we were just passing through. I haven't read Twilight, but I read this article on cracked.com so I don't have to. This article on  TheOatmeal.com is pretty good too.

Then on to Rialto beach, a pebble beach with ginormous driftwood trees we had to climb over to get to the water.

Finally, on to our campsite along the coast, at a site on a bluff overlooking the ocean.

 Sept 14th

After packing up, headed to ruby beach to see the sea stacks, which are rock spires off the coast.

The fog makes everything eerie and beautiful. Then off to hoh rainforest.

Pretty amazing to see glaciers, rainforest, and sandy beaches all within the same park. In the rainforest we go on a short hike through 200 foot trees covered in spongy green lichen. Reminds us a lot of New Zealand.

Then begins the long drive across the gut of the state to get to the Mt. Rainer area. Washington small towns are a strange thing. Breed of redneck unlike any I've seen before. We stay in Randle WA, whose motto should be "Randle - a place to drive through" because there's a never-ending stream of 18 wheelers carrying huge cut logs screaming along the highway