Olympic Mountains

Today our mission is to explore the Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park. Once again we blessed the day we got our Golden Age Passport. It has returned the $10 it cost many times over. We began by driving to Hurricane Ridge at an elevation of 5200 ft. The views of the Olympic Mountains was great. but clouds blocked our view of the Straights of Juan De Fuca.

Olympic Mountains

After descending from the mountains we drove to Crescent Lake to have lunch at the Crescent Lake Lodge. Our window table had a great view of the lake and the food was very good.

Then we continued our exploration by driving the road to Sol Duc Hot Springs. Our first stop was at the Salmon Cascades to watch the Coho Salmon working their way up stream to spawn. We saw salmon jumping in the air in their effort to get upstream but my shutter finger wasn't quick enough to capture an image.

Our next adventure was a hike to view Sol Duc Falls. We enjoyed hiking in the falling rain which presented a different but appropriate view of the rain forest.

Sol Duc Falls

On Wednesday we moved our motorhome to an RV park in Forks for a look at the western side of Olympic National Park. With the motorhome settled in the park we headed for a hike in the Hoh Rain Forest. The drive in presented some terrific views of the Hoh River.

Hoh River

After a picnic lunch we donned our hiking boots and began our exploration of the Hoh Rain Forest. The blue sky and bright sun were a bit disappointing as I would have preferred a light drizzle which would have made the colors of the forest more interesting.

Moss on Trees

Rain Forest

Our next adventure is to explore the seashore part of Olympic National Park.