We got up, packed up, and headed into the interior of
Olympic National Park. The park has many record setting trees, and we passed
one of them, a Sitka tree:
We arrived at the Hoh Rainforest, a signature sight in Olympic National Park. This is the northern-most rain
forest in the world and receives 147 inches of rain per year.
The heavy rain means everything is covered in moss.
Everything:
We took a short hike through this area, and these were some
of the sights:
It’s a unique forest – it smelled and felt extremely fresh
and clean. The trees are dense and seem to hang over you. Just as you would
picture a rainforest, actually.
Next we followed the main park road which eventually paralleled
the Washington coast for several miles. There are many places to stop and visit
the beach, and we decided to do so at Ruby beach, which features many rock
pillars and islands. Here’s the one that will be particularly memorable to me:
I thought I’d climb around on it a bit and see if I could
reach the top. Well, just a foot or two shy of the top my handhold crumbled
and, sure enough, I was free-falling to the rocky base. Mid-fall I remember
thinking “uh-oh, this is bad!” I don’t know for sure but I think I fell about
15 feet. I landed on my feet first, then rolled onto my knees, then rolled down
some additional rocks over my side, and eventually found myself in a prone
position near the sand.
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| This doesn't capture it very well, but basically I fell down the length of this. |
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| Soaking in salt water... |
In retrospect it was pretty miraculous that I didn’t break
any bones, although Sharon exhausted the first aid kit to patch up my hands and
knees! Still pretty stiff all over as I write this, but feeling much better than yesterday.
I did also manage to tear a hole in my favorite jeans. Note
to fashion industry: this is the only acceptable explanation for “distressed”-style
jeans.
We drove on, and here I should add that today a little a
panic set in as we realized how (relatively) little time was left for us to
conclude our trip and get back home. As a result, we’re going to need to skip a
few sights that were on our original trip plan. I’ll have more thoughts on the
overall trip once we get back home, but I can already tell you that we way
underestimated the amount of time it would take to travel this far and see as
much as we wanted to along the way.
Our “going home” plan now is to skip Mount St.
Helens, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, and Northern California on this trip.
Instead, we’ll cut Southeast from here toward Boise, Salt Lake City, and then Denver. We hope to
explore northern Utah and Colorado some before high-tailing it back home from
there.
So, we ended up along the Columbia River Gorge in northern
Oregon at a state park overlooking the river.
Tomorrow will probably be a big
driving day, so don’t get too excited.
Random Fact of the Day: In Oregon (and New Jersey) you can't fuel your own gas - all stations are full service.