7 July 2012

Today we left Port Angeles and went to three sites in Olympic National Park.  The first location was Hurricane Ridge, which overlooks the Olympic mountains and is at an elevation about a mile above sea level.  There is still snow on several of the longer hiking trails, so we didn’t hike as much as we wanted at this location.  Once again we found blue lupine in bloom.

Our second stop was at Sol Duc, which is classified as coastal forest.  Most of the trails were along the various campgrounds, and there wasn’t a lot of parking.  We walked to see the Sol Duc salmon cascade.  We didn't see any salmon jumping.

We then walked up to Sol Duc falls.  There's no way salmon could jump up this falls.  So it begged the question, where do they spawn?

Our third stop was at Hoh River valley, which is classified as coastal rain forest.  Fortunately it wasn’t raining!  In the Hoh area you can see giant Sitka redwoods and hemlock trees.  The largest cedar tree was over 270 feet tall, 20 feet across, and between 500 to 550 years old. 

 We strolled/hiked about 5.5miles.  Nothing too taxing and we eventually drove on to Hoquiam Washington.  The campground is relatively new, definitely full, and we were lucky with our late arrival the campsite is on the tranquil Hoquiam River.