Pacific Northwest – Installment 8

If you read Installment 7, you know we visited Hurrican Ridge at Olympic National Park (ONP) in the morning. Our plan was to head around to the Sol Duc area to see the hot springs. As we were on our way, we decided to stop at Lake Crescent, also within ONP, to see the lodge and grab lunch.

It’s hard to understand the sheer vastness of ONP. Looking at a map (click on the image at left) might help. But even then, until you are there and experience the size for yourself, it’s hard to imagine the scale. So I decided to copy some map images, one showing the area we covered in WA/OR and one showing the exact same area in the Eastern US, to help give you a better idea.

The park itself is about as big as Central Maryland. And there are no roads that go from one side to the other, because of the mountains, so you have to drive around the perimeter of the park and then into the park’s interior to reach specific points.

We’d driven an hour, at least, to reach Hurricane Ridge. Then we had to exit the park and continue west for another hour to reach Lake Crescent. It would have been at least another 45 minutes to where we were headed in Sol Duc. Which then meant we’d have another two-hour and 45-minute drive to get back to Sequim, which is where we were staying.

We did make a stop to see Madison Creek Falls on the way to Lake Crescent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely area, eh? I’m glad we took our time there. But we still had things to see, so off we went to Lake Crescent.

Cute cottages, which are part of the Lake Crescent Lodge complex.

 

 

 

Hubby didn’t feel like exploring the forest trail with us. He found a nice spot to relax, wouldn’t you agree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were all pretty tired and decided to head back to our rental house. I was very glad to catch the following sunset image from our back deck.

And that ended our day.

I can’t believe I’m only at the end of our fifth full day. There’s much more yet to share.

The next installment will feature images from the Hoh Rain Forest and one of my absolute favorite stops, Rialto Beach.

Don’t forget to check back. Some of those images are amazing…

 

 

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TRIP Re-cap

 

Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)

Installment 2: Portland Morning (Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 3: Exploring the City of Portland (morning of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 4: Beyond Portland (afternoon of Tuesday, Sept 3)

Installment 5: Olympic Peninsula, Here We Come!

Installment 6: First Rain Forest Hike & Another Gorgeous Beach

Installment 7: Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park