Washington Trip - Part 1: Sequim, Port Angeles, and the Olympic National Forest.

October 30, 2017

Washington Trip - Part 1: Sequim, Port Angeles, and the Olympic National Forest.

Near the end of October, Jose and I went to Washington. We spent 9 full days there, 4 1/2 in the Pacific North West (PNW) and 4 1/2 in Seattle.

Our plan was to hike around the Olympic National Forest, which is a huge forest in the PNW that has some great trails, unique environments, and overall beautiful scenery. We wanted to hike through a rain forest, see Sol-Duc Falls, and hit up a couple of one-of-a-kind spots in the park.

We arrived at Sea-Tac pretty early in the morning on Tuesday, picked up our rental car, and headed out to Sequim (pronounced Skwim). But first...

We picked up some Pho in Tacoma. (It was delicious!)

Next, since our check-in time was later in the afternoon, we decided to make a pit-stop in Port Orchard because I heard there was a nursery that had a Hobbit house! I believe it was called the Brothers Greenhouses.

We finally made it to Seqium and our AirBnb, but we kept a low profile because a) we got up at 4 a.m. and b) it gets dark early up yonder. We grabbed some groceries, made a light dinner, and went to bed.

Full Day #1

The next morning, we woke up early and headed towards Sol-Duc Falls. It rained the entire 11 mile hike, and I fell into a raging river. It was cold and wet, but it was a pretty sweet accomplishment. We made it all the way up to Deer Lake, which took over 3 hours to get to.

Sol-Duc Falls at the beginning of our hike...

Sol-Duc Falls at the end of our hike...

After that tedious hike, we stopped by the Sol-Duc Falls Resort, which had natural hot springs we got to relax in for about an hour. It was lovely to have that heat on us after all of that hiking! I think both of our hips and knees were pretty sore. The elevation increase during those 3 hours was crazy.

Once we got back to Sequim, we changed into warm clothes and went and grabbed a bite to eat.

Full Day #2

Since our first day was a bit more intense than we thought it would be, we decided to make our second day a little more low-key. We decided to drive down to Kalaloch to see the Kalaloch Tree and check out things on the west coast.

When we finally got to Kalaloch, the tide was so high that the logs on the beach were being thrown up against the sea wall, so we decided to get away from the dangerous shore, and drive around to see what else there was to see.

Our first stop was Ruby Beach, the first 4 photos show how crazy cool the beach was. The driftwood was so large, you had to climb on it to get to the water. We also did a little zen rock stacking!

Next, we stopped at Big Cedar Tree, which had two super awesome gigantic trees.

We made a few more beach stops (no photos of those), but Jose suggested we go look and see if the tide had dropped down so we could see the Kalaloch Tree. I was skeptical, but I'm glad we went back, because the tide was *just* low enough that we could get there and see it before the next large wave came in.

Our last stop was a spur-of-the-moment stop. We spotted the Marymere falls sign at Crescent Lake, which we both wanted to see, so we decided to go check it out as the sun was going down.

Our last adventure was at the dock at Lake Crescent. This is what the lake actually looks like (no filter or Photoshop at all). It was super blue, and you could see straight to the bottom. Fun Fact: Crescent Lake was formed by a glacier!

Full Day #3

Since we rested on day 2, we decided to spend the day in the Hoh Rainforest. We looped through the Hall of Mosses (that is a maple grove, which moss *loves* to grow on), then we trekked on to the Hoh Rainforest Trail and made it all the way to the Happy Four Shelter and headed back. We also intercepted some deer, and they totally didn't mind we were there.

Maple grove

Hoh River

One of North America's largest temperate rainforests!

After an almost 13 mile hike, we headed to a pub in Port Angeles to grab some hot food. I can't remember what the pub was called, but it was delicious after eating granola bars and cashews and bananas all day!

Full Day #4

On the last full day in the PNW, we decided to keep it chill and wander around Port Angeles. First, we stopped at The Oak Table for breakfast, where I had a German pancake that was bigger than my head! Then we headed to Hurricane Ridge, which is a point in the Olympic National Forest that you can see Mount Olympus from. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we hiked a short (read, 4 miles) trail and then wandered around Port Angeles for the rest of the afternoon.