Olympic National Park!

Saturday night we made it as far as Potlatch State Park on the Olympic Peninsula after about 9 hrs. of driving. On the way we stopped at Walmart to refuel the pantry and get some roasted chicken for a quick dinner in the trailer. Nice to have our dining room so conveniently located. Long day. JOY that the campground had an open site on a Saturday night - not too common this time of year. We had a restful night and in the morning cruised up the road a bit more to enjoy a really nice church service at Hood Canal Community Church. We stuck out a bit in the crowd of 40 people but we met some nice people and got some tips for hiking. Then back on the road to Port Angeles which we reached by mid afternoon and checked into our campsite. Weather last two days was cloudy with some rain but that's OK. First rain we've seen in three weeks. No views of Mount Rainer on the way as a result. We visited the Olympic National Park Visitor Center to get our bearings and plan our visit. After dinner we relaxed by our campfire and consumed our ..... lost track... maybe 30th s'more of the trip?

Monday we were greeted with blue skies and sun! You could see snowy peaks in the Olympic range to our South. We set off on a 2 hr. drive to the other side of the park to see the Hoh Rain Forest. Interesting drive passing a logging truck every 15 minutes. They are practicing sustainable harvesting here and they have interesting signs by sections of timber telling you when they were harvested, replanted, harvested 50 yrs. later, and replanted again. Last time I made this drive close to 20 yrs. ago I was dismayed by the amount of clear cutting but was happy to see today forests regrowing in these areas. Hoh is the only rain forest in the continental US and is populated with primarily coniferous trees. BIG Trees. And an amazing amount of plant life composed primarily of ferns and moss. This forest has the highest biomass concentration in the country as well. A nice switch after so many weeks of hiking in dry climates. Kids really enjoyed the hike we took - hiked 5.5 miles up the Ho River valley to a nice waterfall. No big wildlife after our recent Elk exposure but lots of Banana and Black slugs and one little snake. Take what you can get. We did find Elk tracks. :-)

After a well earned lunch in the truck we arrived at the Sol Duc River region for our afternoon hike. We hiked .8 miles to Sol Duc Falls and were rewarded with a great rainbow from the afternoon sun in the mist. We then hiked down the Sol Duc river and back up the mountain to our truck. Beautiful hike with green everywhere. More ferns, moss, etc. But we finished late...almost 8 PM. Kids were real troopers today logging 12.2 miles on the trail with high enthusiasm. They were rewarded with a Safeway roasted chicken dinner with soft fresh bread, strawberries, and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches! On the drive home we were able to see Mount Rainer in the sunset. Very nice. All is good in Port Angeles. Only sad news is that Judith twisted her ankle a bit. Doesn't seem severe and its much better this morning after some icing. Fingers crossed.