Olympic National Park

Our third and final national park on our tour of Washington was Olympic National Park, on the western side of the state. Starting from Mt. Rainier, we planned a route that would circle the whole Olympic peninsula clockwise. After very hot weather we were looking forward to cooler coastal temperatures and forested hikes.

We started the day at Wild Waves amusement park, just east of Tacoma, for Paul to get a few roller coaster credits. This is a small park (and mostly a waterpark), but there is a pleasant forested section and a nice wooden coaster. We spent about 90 minutes here before continuing on to the state's capital city, Olympia.

The upper portion of Wild Waves is shady and nice.

Timberhawk, the park's biggest ride.

When we arrived in Olympia we had lunch at a Korean restaurant and walked a bit around downtown before driving up to the state capitol building. It's an impressive building perched above the city. It was quiet with only a handful of visitors since most government employees are teleworking. We wish it was a bit more connected into downtown, instead of being surrounded by parking. Overall Olympia is a pleasant little city with good access to outdoor activities.

Downtown Olympia.

Yum!

The dome of the state capitol.

Inside the senate chambers.

The towering main atrium of the capitol.

It's a very classically styled building.

View from the hill the capitol sits on.

From Olympia we drove west straight to the Pacific coast. It was a sunny and warm drive, and then immediately turned foggy and cool as we approached the ocean. We drove on US 101, the famous Pacific Coast Highway, as it entered the coastal part of Olympic National Park. We stopped at Ruby Beach and did a short 1 mile hike along the beach, with plenty of eerie fog-shrouded rock formations. We continued driving, turning inland and arriving at our AirBnB in Forks (a small town famous as the filming location for the Twilight movies), where we met up with our friends Leslie and Lauren and had some dinner before bed.

Big pines on the beach.

Ruby Beach has neat rock formations.

David on the beach.

It was foggy, a huge difference from the sunny weather a few miles east.

Our AirBnB was a cute tiny house!

The next day we got up early for the longest hike of the trip - the Hoh River Trail. We drove in early to beat the crowds. The trail winds through temperate rainforest and along the Hoh River. The entire trail is 35 miles, but we walked just part of the distance (maybe 7 miles or so) before turning around. The trail is mostly flat, so it's not as difficult as some of the mountain hikes we did at Mt. Rainier and North Cascades. The Hoh rainforest is very scenic, and was a nice change of pace. 

aaa 

Here we go!

A big mossy tree.

A friendly slug.

We hiked through miles of verdant forest.

Every once and a while the trail aligned with the Hoh River.

Just us with some ferns.

Really idyllic trail at spots!

Tree door!

Some of the trees were amazingly massive.

Black-tailed deer friend.

Most of the trail was densely forested - this was the one spot that was a bit more open.

More views of the Hoh River and surrounding mountains and forests.

This little fungi looked like a turkey or maybe a squirrel.

If I had a dollar for every tree Paul stuck his head into...

After grabbing a late lunch, David was feeling a little under the weather and relaxed at the AirBnB while the rest of us went out for an evening beach hike. We drove from Forks to nearby Rialto Beach. We timed our walk for low tide, so we were able to walk on the rocks and see a lot of sea creatures. The beach was beautiful in the evening light, with big clouds banks rolling off shore.

Not so foggy today.

Pelicans flying along the beach.

There are a lot of huge rock features along the beach.

"Hole in the wall" is a popular rock feature.

View through Hole in the wall.

Leslie and Lauren looking for critters.

There were a lot of starfish, and even an area we named "starfish city" because there were so many of them.

I could walk around tide pools all day! Well, at low tide anyway. :)

Mini rivers formed as the tide started to come back in.

So many little creatures to see at low tide.

A particularly bright starfish.

A little forest of sea anemones.

Walking through some of the huge rock features.

Just a crab on the beach!

We loved the diversity of experiences between the rainforest and the coast at Olympic National Park. We would highly recommend a trip here. The park is huge and we barely scratched its surface! We'll probably be back to see some of the other parts of the park and do winter activities.

Forks, is a good base to explore some of the ocean and Hoh rainforest sights, but isn't a very big city so food and entertainment options are limited. That said, it was way better than the towns near Mt. Rainier!