Pacific NW: day 3
This post is part 3 of the "pacific_nw_2008" series:
Since the sun was up by 5AM, we were all awake super early, and broke camp before 6AM. The dirt road back to to US-101 was a bit muddy in places from the shower overnight, but overall, it wasn't in too bad shape even though the car was coated. Before getting back onto the paved portion of the road we almost hit a herd of elk crossing the road.
It took just over an hour to reach the Hoh Rainforest. The fog started to break up as we started the hike on the Spruce Nature and Hall of Mosses trails. I enjoyed the Spruce Nature trail alot. The trail markers explained the history and topology of the region well, and the scenery along the Hoh River was lovely. Towards the end of the trail, almost walked right into an elk eating his breakfast.
Afterwards, we continued northbound along US-101, and then west to Mora and Rialto Beach. It was striking what a huge difference a 50 mile drive could make. The beach was socked in by fog, and everything, the rocks, logs, sky, and ocean were all in shades of gray.
Following that, we continued north on US-101, across the north side of the park. A bit of weird trivia; US-101 is a strictly north/south highway from southern California all the way up to northern Washington, at which point, it gets very weird. Suddenly it became an east-west highway, as in the signage marked the route as east & westbound, and to make matters even more strange, it inverts itself completely as it goes along the park's eastern edge, at which point its north/south again. Thus, there are two parallel portions of US-101 on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, separated by about 100 miles, both of which have north/south directions that are identical. Anyway, we turned off of US-101 to drive down the Sol Duc Valley to hike to Sol Duc Falls. The hike is about 1 mile each way, and its well worth it. We could hear the falls from at least a half mile away, and pictures truly can't do them justice. The volume of water plunging over the 3 parallel falls is awesome.
After the falls, it was mid-afternoon, so we decided to find a campground for the night. We drove about 50 miles east and found a decent spot at the Altair Campground, along the Elwah River. Unlike the Quinault River, the Elwah was wide, deep, and full of swift rapids. The campground was nice, although alot more crowded than the North Fork. There are 20 sites, however it also had potable water (which had a disturbing yellowish tinge), and full bathrooms. After setting up the tent, David and I went for a short hike on a trail that went deep into the forest just south of the campground. After dinner, we drove 2.5 miles back up the road to see Madison Falls. On the walk back to the car, I got this gorgeous shot of the snow capped mountains deeper inside the park.
We got a decent night of sleep (with no rain!), although it wasn't dark until nearly 10PM, and the sky started to brighten around 4:30AM.
This post is part 3 of the "pacific_nw_2008" series: