Our first rainy day on this journey

After 44 days on this journey to and around the rainy Pacific Northwest, we finally had to get out our rain coats. It started raining last night, and we still had precipitation when we pulled out of our camp site at Olympic National Park.

For the first time since we arrived, Lake Crescent was calm. The clouds were reflecting on its glass-like surface as we drove by it for the last time.

Our destination was Elwha River Casino. This was a smoke-free casino in the middle of no where, but we appreciated the fact that it had five free camp sites for RVs. We also appreciated the $10 in free play for new members, and a 10-percent-off coupon at their restaurant. Since it was raining, we used that coupon for lunch and registered with their security desk for our camp site. After a very full day of hiking yesterday, we used this rainy day to do some resting and trip planning. Our original plan was to slip into Canada for part of our trip home. But we recognized that we didn't have time to do Canada justice this trip. We'll return another time. We've been without internet and phone signal for the last seven camp sites, so it was nice to catch up on what was going on in the world.

We had been hiking hard for the last few days, since we saw this rainy weather in the forecast. Even though we were in rain forest territory and everything was very green, they were in a drought by their usual standards. The locals were very glad to see this rain.

It was also a good rainy day to do laundry in nearby Port Angeles. We had also been away from a laundromat for the last week. Then we drove out to Tongue Point in Salt Creek County Recreation Park. That's the Salish Sea right behind Mark. That's the waterway that ships sail to get to the Pacific Ocean. Even though Canada was just a few miles away, it was too cloudy and rainy to see it across the sea. But we did take a picture of Mark beside the "U.S. Reference Mark." This cement post registers the northern border of the United States. Straight across the Salish Sea was Victoria, Canada.

We had read that this beach at Tongue Point was a great place to search the tide pools during low tide. But it was raining even harder this morning, so we arrived at high tide instead.

On a blue sky day, we're sure that this beach and the islands in the sea would have been especially lovely. It's also a good place to do some kayaking on a pretty day. We could see through the clear turquoise water to get an appreciation for the popularity of this park.

But on a rainy day, we had no problems finding parking spots. Also, the wildlife was not scared away by the crowds.

We hiked the Bluff Trail in the rain, and stopped in at some of the relics of the old military base. This was a decommissioned military base that was active during World War II. Some of the artillery storage barricades made for a respite from the rain.

It continued to rain for 24 hours, so we had a forced day of rest during this Pacific Northwest tour. We had been hiking pretty hard, so it was probably good for us to slow down a little. We certainly would have missed out on some beautiful views and experiences if it was raining every day. Our first rainy day on this journey made us realize how much we had been blessed with an unusual amount of sunshine.

Hiking the short trail wonders of northern Olympic National Park

After the morning on top of Hurricane Ridge, we still had a good part of the day to explore the lower elevation sections of northern Olympic National Park. We had a list of short hikes we wanted to do, so we started checking them off the list. First stop was Madison Falls. After a 0.2 mile hike, we arrived at the waterfall.

Madison Falls -- check!

To give an example of how big this national park was, we drove over an hour to get to the top of Hurricane Ridge from our campground this morning, then an hour back down to Madison Falls. Then we drove an hour to get to Sul Doc Road for the next trail head. It was a mile hike through the forest to get to our next destination on the list.

Many say that Sol Duc Falls is the prettiest waterfall in this national park. Mark hiked to the top of the falls to take a picture back towards the bridge. Denisa was standing on the view point on the left side of the picture below.

Denisa took Mark's picture from the opposite direction. With all the greenery, it's hard to find Mark in the picture below. We ended up hiking 2.7 miles because we had to park down the road from the trailhead on this very popular hike.

Sol Duc Falls -- check!

It was 4:30 by the time we started the Ancient Groves Nature Trail.

This was an old growth forest. That means that these trees were never harvested by the lumber crews that swept through this area. These ancient trees are some of the oldest and tallest in North America.

Because of all the shade from the towering tree tops, the ground underneath the trees was carpeted by a layer of green moss. That moss flooring looks a little like the green shag carpet Denisa remembers from her childhood home.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders! We love these ancient forests, where we often leave with a neck ache from looking up at the tree tops so very high above us. Over and over, Mark would reverently whisper, "I love big trees!" We got another mile of exercise on this hike.

Ancient Groves Nature Trail -- check!

The next item on our list were the Salmon Cascades, and we were happy to get a parking spot in the small parking lot at 5:15 p.m. A short walk through the forest brought us to a viewing platform over the river. We stood there for thirty minutes, watching the salmon make valiant jumps against the frothy water bubbling downhill.

If you look carefully at each of these pictures, you can find one fish in mid air, trying to jump up the falls to the higher level of the waterfall. Coho salmon show up in July after making the seventy mile swim from the ocean. They are programed to come back to the very river where they were hatched two years before.

They have to navigate the cascades, jumping up seven feet to get to lay eggs on the calmer section of the Sol Duc River. After laying their eggs, they die. Their carcasses feed the local wildlife and provide the nutrients that continue to fuel this area.

Salmon Cascades -- check!

After cheering on the salmon for thirty minutes, it was time to return to the pickup and the return drive to our campground. With our early morning start for Hurricane Ridge, we got home about twelve hours after we left this morning. The hot shower felt great after miles of hiking! Most of the people staying in Fairholme Campground were staying in tents, and they didn't have the luxury of a hot shower. Our lithium battery is at 78%, as the solar panels generated 27 amps of electricity on this cloudy day. We were living in the lap of luxury with showers and electricity in the middle of a national park with few amenities! We enjoyed temperatures in the 50s and 60s on this August day. 

Another great day of wandering the short trail wonders in Olympic National Park -- check!

Olympic National Park's Hurricane Ridge

We were up at 5:00 a.m. to get an early start on the day's exploration in Olympic National Park. The sun was still behind the mountains that surround Lake Crescent when we left our camp site.

The rising sun was coloring the clouds pink this early morning. We were up so early because we were headed to one of the most popular mountainous sections of this huge national park.  Even though we were camped deep in the park, it was an hour and 15 minute drive to get to Hurricane Ridge. We had read that they close the road up the mountain when the parking lots get full at the top.

As we drove up the mountain pass, we ran into the clouds. We were worried that our early departure would be in vain if the mountains were covered in clouds so we couldn't see the beautiful views from the top. When we visited Olympic National Park in the early summer of 2017, this road was closed at the top because it was still covered with snow. So the hike we took that year was actually on the road. We can report that the road was completely cleared of snow by August.

We were glad to report that we were on top of the clouds by the time we arrived at the top parking lot. 

We were the third car in the upper parking lot nearest to the best trails on Hurricane Ridge. So our early morning rising was rewarded with having the trail all to ourselves. We were also rewarded with very pleasant hiking temperatures. We needed our jackets for this summer hike with temperatures in the upper 50s.

We were also rewarded with colored clouds as the sun was finally rising over the tallest peaks in Olympic National Park.

The clouds that we drove through earlier this morning were filling the mountain valleys. That made a surreal combination of white clouds and black forests and mountain peaks.

We have wandered into God's wonders this early morning!

We started the hike at 7:00 a.m., and we had the trail almost to ourselves. We saw only three groups coming down the mountain. They obviously got up very early to see the sunrise from the top.

We would have been a little faster, but Denisa slowed us down with her stops to pick huckleberries. She really likes a steep path where the bushes grow up the side of the mountain and are therefore at your hand level for easy picking. No bending over to pick berries on this trail.

It was a nice breakfast fruit snack this morning as we made our way up Hurricane Hill.

It was a steep path, but that meant we were soon at eye level with the snow-clad mountain tops around us. With great views and berry snacks, Mark commented, "Now all we need is some wildlife to make this a five-star hike."

That's about the time we spotted the first marmot of the day.

He was standing guard at the top of the ridge.

We also enjoyed the wildflowers blooming along the trail.

This flower was a harebell, which is also known as the Scotland bluebell.

The clouds continued to sift through the valleys, but we kept our blue skies at the mountain tops.

Once we got to the top of the trail, we continued onto Hurricane Ridge. We took several of the dirt paths that wandered across the top of the mountain. We had gotten a report that there were three elk at the top, and we went in search of them. We never found elk, but we found plenty of deer. This one walked up the hill right in front of Denisa. She was close enough to get a good picture with her cell phone.

All around us were jagged peaks and more places to hike.

We walked out to the very edges of the dirt trails at the top, enjoying this beautiful place all by ourselves.

After enjoying many of the hard-to-scramble-to view-points, we headed back to the more congested paved trail.

We came upon more wildlife. This is certainly going to be a five-star trail!

This black-tail doe brought her fawn out of hiding to show it off.

This ptarmigan was sitting in the middle of the dirt path, standing as still as a statue. Mark got a great picture, but then he wanted to walk past the bird. He was surprised that it still didn't move as he got closer and closer. He found that ptarmigans were better at running than flying. It took a lot of flapping to get that big bird body in the air. Then he discovered why it was standing so still. A large raptor swooped out of a nearby tree, intent on grabbing a ptarmigan for lunch.

The deer near the top seemed to be used to the crowds of hikers that would be on this mountain top today. They were quite tame and ready to pose for pictures.

More and more people were arriving to the top as the morning wore on. We got a picture together, taken by one of the other hikers at the top. From here we were supposed to be able to see Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. But everything at sea level was still blanketed by a thick layer of clouds.

From here, we had views of the highest mountains in Olympic National Park that were still covered with snow in August.

These were actually some of the tallest mountains in the whole state of Washington. Among them were Mt. Olympus and Mt. Carrie.

We found more marmots guarding another section of the mountain.

Denisa thinks you can never have too many marmot pictures.

. . . or ptarmigan pictures.

It was around 9:30 when we started the hike downhill. This was one of the most popular trails in Olympic National Park, and we met a steady stream of hikers that were going up as we descended. By the time we got back to the trailhead, the top parking lot was obviously full. The middle parking lot was also full. The only parking spots available were at a parking area about 1.5 miles further down the mountain. So anyone starting this hike at 10:00 would have an additional 3 miles of up-hill walking along the road to get to the same views we enjoyed today. And we had those early morning view all to ourselves.

As we drove back down the mountain, we gave a ride to some hikers that were having to make that additional 1.5 mile walk back to the lower parking lot. Even though these hikers had arrived earlier, RVs have to stop at the lowest parking lot. Their teenage New York daughter thought it was a great adventure to ride down the mountain on our pickup tail gate.

For those not able to make the hike up to the top, several hikes were available from the bottom parking lot. We hiked the Cirque Rim to Sunrise Point Loop, and realized we didn't take a single picture. After the views at the top on Hurricane Ridge, these lower trails didn't even compare. But why did Denisa take this picture of a clump of bushes on this trail. Do you see anything?

She zoomed in to show the deer that was resting in the shade in the middle of the brush. We spotted her with our eyes, but the camera had a hard time seeing her.

It was after 11:00 when we started the drive back down out of the Hurricane Ridge section of Olympic National Park. It was 53 degrees outside, and we again drove through the clouds on our way through the tunnel section of the 18-mile drive to the bottom.

After enjoying blue skies above the clouds all morning, we were surprised to find that the lowlands were still covered with clouds even at noon. We were ready for lunch, and stopped for a brisket burrito in the largest town on the peninsula--Port Angeles. We had already had a full day of hiking, but it was only 1:00 p.m. Because we saw rain in the forecast, we decided to keep exploring this national park while the weather holds out. But that will have to wait for another blog. . .