Olympic National Park, WA

Tuesday, August 4, 2015


Today we decided to drive through part of the Olympic National Park.  We plan to see Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent, and Sol Duc Hot Springs.

Before we got 20 miles we came upon this interesting Visitor's Center dedicated to The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe.

This was just outside a gift shop and an art gallery.  There was a little park area close to the water also.

This was a "Welcoming" statue.

This one was a Fishing Spirit.

Inside this rest area were signs describing the S'Klallam Tribe.

On the way back to the car, I saw this tunnel that went under the road.  There was a hotel on the other side of the road. 

We finally reached the ranger station at the bottom of Hurricane Ridge.  We went inside and looked around.  This is a slice of a 650+ year old Douglas fir tree. 

The drive up to Hurricane Ridge had an elevation change of about 5000 ft.  It was a gorgeous drive. This was along our way up.

More beautiful views on the way up.

Here we are at the top.  The sign at the visitors center says the elevation is 5242 ft.

This movie shows the grandeur a little better than a still picture.

I thought it was so beautiful to be above the fog.  It was much cooler at the top than down by the sea.

We are headed back down.  It is interesting how things look different in the opposite direction.

We did not take pictures of the 3 tunnels on the way up.  Here we are exiting one tunnel heading for another.  There are a total of 3 tunnels spaced about the same distance apart. Notice there is very little shoulder AND a bicyclist.  CRAZY!

When we got back down, we headed westward some more.  We came to Lake Crescent .  It was formed by glaciers causing landslides.  It is fed by rainfall and snowfall only so the water is crystal clear and blue (green in shallower areas) much like Crater Lake.  Water does not runoff into this lake so there are not any impurities.

Lake Crescent is  home to fish like the Beardslee and Crescenti trout, two types of fish found nowhere else in
the world.

This is a picture of a shallow area showing how clear the water is.  It looks more green here also.

We drove to the Hot Springs Resort.  It was late in the afternoon by the time we arrived.  The air was filled with a strong sulfur smell.  The parking lot was full, so we decided not to investigate.  We wanted to get home to dinner and we were about 1.5 hours away.  We did not even take any pictures.

Oh well, maybe another day.  We have more adventures planned for the next few days.