Lovely rainforest
Sea stacks and Beachs
Interesting track work solutions
Banana Slugs, in WA
Camp on the beach
Sunset on the sea
Sunset and reflections
Sunset over Scott's Bluff
From Mt St Helens, I drove north to Seattle. Rich had called, but ended up being otherwise occupied, and I just wanted to see the city that gave us grunge. I wanted to go to bars and see the town. I guess I got that, and did a bit of bar hopping in the Capitol Hill area, but then I couldn't find the hostel I was trying to find, and the state park south of town wouldn't accept new campers after 10pm, and the caretaker chased me out to prove it, so I ended up in the rest area trying to get a little bit of sleep.
Got a couple of hours of cramped sleep in the drivers seat, and decided I'd had enough of the big town scene and headed out to the Olympic National Park.
The Olympic Peninsula is huge. It's a little hard to find information for hiking until you've driven half way around to get to the main ranger station, and the weather wasn't all that inviting, so instead of visiting one of the interior destinations I opted for a short overnight walk down the coast.
Which was very pretty. Walked about 4-5 miles down the coast from near La Push, and camped out on the beach infront of the Giant's Graveyard/Scott's Bluff sea stacks. Very pleasant time, I took pictures of the sunset, made big rock stacks, and enjoyed walking around the rock pools a little bit the next morning. I really should have worn my wet shoes! I saw more starfish than I'd ever seen before, and giant sea anenomes, and who knows what I would have seen if I'd gone out a bit further.
The vegetation here was very cool, and not at all like coastal walking in Australia. Predominately Western Hemlock, and also Sitka Spruce. Only two levels, the big trees, and small ferns and shurbbery. No middle story at all.
The track work was cool though. Instead of switchbacks or anything like that, they just hung a ladder down the side of the hill, and a rope for a handrail. rather different. In other places though they had full on wooden staircases. Overall a very pleasant getaway.
From there it was down for a quick walk around the Hoh Rainforest to get a bit of a taste of the interior. Reminded a lot of Binna Burra/O'Reilly's. I guess it's still temperate rainforest.
Lovely rainforest | Sea stacks and Beachs | Interesting track work solutions | Banana Slugs, in WA |
Camp on the beach | Sunset on the sea | Sunset and reflections | Sunset over Scott's Bluff |