Port Angeles, Washington

 More hiking in store for the day, this time in a different part of Olympic NP.

We woke to the forecast of overcast and threatening to rain.  A little warmer and lower elevation today.  Long drive, about 40 minutes.

 

The drive itself was scenic, of course.  Passing by the perimeter of the beautiful natural freshwater Lake Crescent. Beautiful clear blue water.

 

First hike was the Sol Duc waterfall.  It's a fairly easy 2 mile round trip hike thru some lovely forest.  This is a popular trail and well maintained. 

 

Just lovely environment.

 

Some huge trees!!

 

At the falls.

 

Grabbed a quick selfie.

 

A different angle for the falls

 

Just a pretty little stream.

 

Then it was a short drive to the Ancient Forest loop.  

 

Big tree!  (I know they're not big like the redwoods or sequoias but they're still pretty massive!)

 

Just a lovely short trail.

 

Next up was the Salmon Cascade area.  This is just a pretty little creek where the salmon swim upstream in the fall to spawn.  

 

We, of course, aren't here in the proper season, but I can imagine what it's like to see the fish jumping out of the rushing water.  

 

Lovely area.....

 

We then stopped by the Lake Crescent lodge, thinking that we would eat our lunch at a picnic table there. 

On a nicer day, that would have been a treat.  But it was still misty and chilly, so we opted for the warmth of the car for a quick lunch and a short 10 minute nap!!

 

Another waterfall to explore - this one was Marymere Falls.  A 1.8 mile RT from the lodge area.....started out the hike with a deer munching away and ignoring me.....

More lush and hushed walking trails.

The falls themselves were sweet but a small amount of water rushing over.

 

Another selfie attempt....

Last on the list today was to hike 2 miles RT to the Devil's Punch Bowl - a small cove on the shore of Lake Crescent.  Interesting trees lined the shoreline.

 

Easy walk to the "punchbowl".  It's just a protected little cove that brave folks like to plunge into.  I felt the water - it's chilly!!!

Beautiful crystal clear water.  Would have been spectacular on a bright sunny day, but the overcast kept it a bit subdued.

Walking back the trail to the car, we passed thru a tunnel - since the trail is called Spruce RR trail, I suspect this was an old railroad tunnel.

That was it for the day....just a little over 20K steps on my watch today.  Still plenty tired from the effort.   The AirBnB owner texted and dropped of fresh warm lemon pound cake.  So fun!!  Really hate to check out of this lodging tomorrow, we've been treated like royalty!

 

 s

 

Port Angeles, Washington

 This AirBnB is pretty cool.  The owners texted me last night and said that they'd bring up a continental breakfast and leave it at our door.....it was fantastic!  Warm fresh muffins and lots of other fresh goodies!

 

 The plan for the day was to hike Hurricane Hill, a very popular hike in Olympic NP....the forecast was for temps around 33 degrees increasing to about 42 by noon.  We have plenty of layers so weren't concerned about being cold, but I forgot to pack gloves.  So we stopped on the way and picked up a couple of pairs.  

I'm just going to load a bunch of photos....scroll thru and enjoy the sights.  The drive into the park.

Starting the hike up to Hurricane Ridge (over 4 miles roundtrip and lots of elevation change), we almost immediately saw a deer....completely unafraid of us.

 

Beautiful views!

Just a little too much cloud cover for perfect photos.

Snow still on some of the north faced trees.

Alot of wildflowers! 

 

A small buck and doe.

 

Closeup of the buck.

 

 

 

Saw a marmot - fluffy little creatures!

 

 

You can see Hurricane Ridge off at the right hand side of the mountain.

That accomplished in a couple of hours, we had a quick sandwich I'd packed and headed down the mountain to the other hike of the day.  This one, just a short one to see Madison Falls.  We drove thru some Washington State Forest to get there - a lovely long tree lined road, turning to gravel at one point.

 

Saw a doe just on the side of the road.....she did not move as we passed by.

The Little River passes thru the valley and Madison Falls feeds into it.  Lovely blue-ish water.

 

Short hike to a lovely little waterfall.

 There were some lovely mossy trees on the trail.

The moss made everything so quiet sounding.

 

Me posing in front of a nice large tree....we also walked another 2 miles on Cascade Rock trail before calling it a day.....