Bauers in Seattle
Monday, August 14, 2006
Weekend on the Olympic Peninsula
[chris] We covered a lot of ground this past weekend on the Olympic Peninsula but it wasn't much of a problem hauling the packs around since we had a nice $400 Celica to do all the carrying. We started off early saturday catching the 7:10 ferry and swinging by Linc and Donna's for another round of fresh blue berry pancakes. They were just as good as the first time and we even had the mother deer and fawn walk by the window as we were eating.
Next we headed toards Hurricane Ridge. It was a long road with a bunch of switch backs but eventually we got to the top of the ridge and visitors center. We had another perfectly clear day for a nice view of Mt. Olympus and a lot of the Olympic National Park. Matt and I took a short hike up to the peak of a near-by ridge and then we started back down the mountain.
Next we headed towards the Pacific Beach. It was a very scenic drive as we went by Lake Crescent with the road winding along the banks of the lake for approximatly 10 miles.
We stopped by the first national park campground
we ran into and luckily found one of the last vacant campsites right before the campground full sign was hung. We set our tents up and headed towards the beach. There was a really weird cloudy haze that hung over the beach like a thick fog but only 1000 feet from the beach it was blue skys and sunny.
It was a rocky beach that had some towering cliffs off in the distance. The beach was also lined with huge driftwood trees and thick pine forests. After a short hike down the beach during high tide we decided to head back to town for dinner.
We had some excellent Mexican food and then headed back to the beach to see if we could catch the sunset. No such luck as the sun was bright up until about 1000 feet from the beach but the beach was covered by a thick fog out over the ocean. We spent an hour or so sitting on the huge logs then headed back to camp with our $3.00 firewood.
We hit up the nightly ranger presentation on the tidal zone and made plans to venture down the coast and catch the low tide the next morning to see everything we learned about.
I wasn't very hopeful of seeing all the creatures that we learned about the night before when we set out for the beach in the morning. However, we found almost every creature that Jen, the ranger, talked about the night before. There were Star Fish everywhere and we hunted around the rocky shore for hours looking at all of the creatures that we learned about the night before. Matt had some fun catching some small fish and feeding them to the sea urchins.
Once the tide started comming in we decided to move on and head down the peninsula to the rain forest. As we drove into the rainforest you quicly noticed the huge trees and thick undergrowth. We bought some subway sandwiches and took a short hike through the rain forest and had lunch on the banks of the Hoh River.
After our hike through the rainforest we started heading towards home. Jack had a little restaurant in mind for dinner on the way. We decided to swing by Port Townsend on the way to see this historic village on the northeast tip of the olympic peninsula. Many of the buildings had been restored to their original turn of the century looks. We took a short stroll down the mainstreet and a driving tour of some of the old mansions up on the ridge and headed to Fat Smitty's.
It was a fun little restaurant with dollar bills plastered all over the walls and ceiling from past guests. Matt and I both ordered the Fat Smitty's special which ended up being two large hamburger patties, bacon, cheese, and 3 buns with everything on them. They were very good.
We then hit the sunday night rush hour on the ferry and had to wait a little over an hour in line on the side of the highway before we could make it back to the mainland and head home.
Tomorrow we're off to Mt. St. Helens. I think we've all been looking forward to this hike since we were able to get our reservations over a month ago. We're planning to swing by Mt. Rainier on our way and hit some of the Mt. St. Helens visitors center along with Ape Cave tomorrow. We will then set out early wednesday morning to climb to the top from the south and hopefully make it down in time to visit the north side of the mountain wednesday afternoon.
We will try to get a post up late wednesday night or thursday morning when we get back.
Next we headed toards Hurricane Ridge. It was a long road with a bunch of switch backs but eventually we got to the top of the ridge and visitors center. We had another perfectly clear day for a nice view of Mt. Olympus and a lot of the Olympic National Park. Matt and I took a short hike up to the peak of a near-by ridge and then we started back down the mountain.
Next we headed towards the Pacific Beach. It was a very scenic drive as we went by Lake Crescent with the road winding along the banks of the lake for approximatly 10 miles.
We stopped by the first national park campground
we ran into and luckily found one of the last vacant campsites right before the campground full sign was hung. We set our tents up and headed towards the beach. There was a really weird cloudy haze that hung over the beach like a thick fog but only 1000 feet from the beach it was blue skys and sunny.It was a rocky beach that had some towering cliffs off in the distance. The beach was also lined with huge driftwood trees and thick pine forests. After a short hike down the beach during high tide we decided to head back to town for dinner.
We had some excellent Mexican food and then headed back to the beach to see if we could catch the sunset. No such luck as the sun was bright up until about 1000 feet from the beach but the beach was covered by a thick fog out over the ocean. We spent an hour or so sitting on the huge logs then headed back to camp with our $3.00 firewood.
We hit up the nightly ranger presentation on the tidal zone and made plans to venture down the coast and catch the low tide the next morning to see everything we learned about.
I wasn't very hopeful of seeing all the creatures that we learned about the night before when we set out for the beach in the morning. However, we found almost every creature that Jen, the ranger, talked about the night before. There were Star Fish everywhere and we hunted around the rocky shore for hours looking at all of the creatures that we learned about the night before. Matt had some fun catching some small fish and feeding them to the sea urchins.
Once the tide started comming in we decided to move on and head down the peninsula to the rain forest. As we drove into the rainforest you quicly noticed the huge trees and thick undergrowth. We bought some subway sandwiches and took a short hike through the rain forest and had lunch on the banks of the Hoh River.
After our hike through the rainforest we started heading towards home. Jack had a little restaurant in mind for dinner on the way. We decided to swing by Port Townsend on the way to see this historic village on the northeast tip of the olympic peninsula. Many of the buildings had been restored to their original turn of the century looks. We took a short stroll down the mainstreet and a driving tour of some of the old mansions up on the ridge and headed to Fat Smitty's.It was a fun little restaurant with dollar bills plastered all over the walls and ceiling from past guests. Matt and I both ordered the Fat Smitty's special which ended up being two large hamburger patties, bacon, cheese, and 3 buns with everything on them. They were very good.
We then hit the sunday night rush hour on the ferry and had to wait a little over an hour in line on the side of the highway before we could make it back to the mainland and head home.
Tomorrow we're off to Mt. St. Helens. I think we've all been looking forward to this hike since we were able to get our reservations over a month ago. We're planning to swing by Mt. Rainier on our way and hit some of the Mt. St. Helens visitors center along with Ape Cave tomorrow. We will then set out early wednesday morning to climb to the top from the south and hopefully make it down in time to visit the north side of the mountain wednesday afternoon.
We will try to get a post up late wednesday night or thursday morning when we get back.
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