Olympic National Park

Wow! This is not a one-day park; it is huge! Over 1,400 square mile of forests, mountains, coast line and lakes. Olympic National Park is awesome in the truest sense of the word. Our brief foray into the park included driving up to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and listening to a talk about the wildlife in the park given by a 23-year employee who obviously loved her job. It's so enjoyable to listen to someone who not only is knowledgeable but cares about her work. She gave the talk with the Olympic mountains as a backdrop and used animal pelts of the actual animals found in the park (these skins were from animals that died naturally and were salvaged) such as the black bear, bobcat, coyote, cougar and marmot. She also talked about the Roosevelt elk found in the park, although they tend to stay in the Hoh rain forest area.

President Grover Cleveland first created the Olympic Forest Reserve, President Teddy Roosevelt designated it a national monument, but President Franklin Roosevelt made the entire area a national park. This was done mainly to preserve the area from the logging industry which was steadily destroying a lot of the forests. What a wonderful decision it was to save this area.

We walked to two waterfalls; a .4 mile round trip walk to Madison Falls, which is a 60 foot tall waterfall and then to Marymere Falls, which was a 3 mile round trip walk. We picnicked beside Madison Falls and were the only people there for a half hour which was nice as we could enjoy the sight and sound of the falls as we ate. The walk to the Marymere Falls was almost like walking through a rain forest with the trees draped heavily in moss and ferns covering the forest floor. The bridges over Barnes Creek leading to the falls were single logs cut in half to be as unobtrusive in the natural habitat as possible. Marymere Falls is 90 feet tall and the last 1/8 mile to reach it gets your heart pumping with the climb. We ran into a young man who took the Storm King trail which is listed as having steep switchbacks and a 2,000 foot gain in elevation; he said that the trail was scary-narrow near the top and not maintained very well and that near the top they had placed ropes to grab on to for assistance in getting to the top. Hmm, I can see that a lot of this park would be for the young and hearty.

Lakes Crescent and Sutherland are beautiful lakes with clear blue-green water along US 101 that look like they'd be wonderful for boating. We didn't go further west to explore the rain forest areas or the Sol Duc hot springs area or further on to the coast; as I said, this is more than a one day park. If you like to hike, Olympic National Park would be the place to come see. The staff at the visitors' centers are very helpful and knowledgeable and wandering the trails in the stillness of the forests is an incredible feeling. The blue grouse (pictured below) was the only unusual wildlife we saw, but I'm sure if you were farther into the park early in the morning or near dusk you'd probably see a lot more animals. Of course, the deer were out but we were hoping for something a little more unusual. Haze (pollution?) kept the visibility down over the Strait of Juan de Fuco but you could see Victoria, British Columbia across the strait and Mt. Baker way in the distance.

Boy, are we going to sleep well tonight!