Dave and my next stop on our nature tour of the Pacific Northwest was Olympic National Park, which is huge! Encompassing almost 1 million acres, it is made up of a diverse landscape including the coast with arches and sea stacks, rainforests with old growth trees, and rugged mountains with glaciers, rivers, and streams. To explore just a small part of this enormous park, we first made our way over to the Washington’s coast and camped at a little town named Ocean Shores. Murphy and I were once again treated to a beach for our sunrise walks. This beach was quite wide and at low tide, it was a long way out to the surf line. Murphy was content in chasing his stick along the beach, only once going all the way to the surf. We are going to miss our morning beach walks as we will be heading inland soon.
One of the southernmost areas in Olympic National Park is the Quinault Rainforest which borders part of the Olympic National Forest. As dogs can hike in the national forest, Dave and I headed to the national forest first and enjoyed two dog-friendly hikes. The first took us to the World’s Largest Sitka Spruce tree. Yep…it was big! The second took us on a nice hike above Lake Quinault through a rainforest.
Next, we drove around the lake to the north shore entering Olympic National Park and the Quinault Rainforest, which is next to the Quinault Indian Reservation. I hiked the Kestner Homestead trail which zig zagged through a rainforest until a homestead appeared. Built by Mr. Kestner in 1891, his wife and their seven children carved out a life in the valley for four decades. He was a well-known woodworker and carpenter and carefully crafted their house, barn, and family furniture.
Upon returning to the beach community, we headed over to the very popular Bennett’s Fish Shack. Dave and I both had hand breaded Halibut Fish ‘n chips, while sitting in the covered dog friendly patio, although Murphy wasn’t too happy about the Doberman sitting nearby. The next day we stopped by a brewery who had a dog park in the back, but they didn’t serve food, so back to Bennett’s we went. Dave tried the crab cakes and I had a fish taco…although it sure looked like a wrap to me. Both were delicious.
With the beach being so wide, it was a perfect location for horseback riding, courtesy of Honey Pearl Ranch. Dave and I saddled up for a one-hour horseback ride along the beach. Dave’s horse, Charlie, was much better behaved than my Blue, who according to one of the guides, was having an attitude problem that day. If we got close to another horse, he would kick them. I tried to navigate him away from the other horses as much as possible, but then he would worm his way up next to one and get me in trouble again! The guide said he was either going in time out or she was going to ride him in the next group that went out. It made the ride fun as I had to keep on eye on his shenanigans.
On to our next rainforest. Dave was able to snag a prime campsite in the Hoh Rain Forest within Olympic National Park. This is a popular destination, receiving between 2,000 and 2,500 visitors a day. When its parking lots are full (which is usually by 8 or 9 a.m.), the park rangers meter cars entering, so the area isn’t inundated with cars circling. We couldn’t check in the campground until noon so we knew there would be a wait. When we first joined the line of cars waiting to enter, we read a sign that said the wait could be “up to” 1 ½ hours from there. We slowly made our way up to the next sign that said the wait could be “up to” 1 hour. I thought the next sign would say 30 minutes…nope, it said “up to” 45 minutes.: Ugh. Finally, came the 30-minute sign. Almost there! With the steady stream of cars leaving the park, the line moved along steadily. After waiting 50 minutes, we were in!
The Hoh Rain Forest has 3 main trails which all start near the visitor center which is close to the campground. Since Murphy couldn’t join us on hikes, being so close to the trails is a plus. After setting up, Dave and I set out for the shortest trail, just under a mile, called the “Hall of Mosses.” During the next 2 days, we hiked the trails, went to a ranger talk and I went on a ranger-led hike on the Hall of Mosses trail. So informative! I was a little disappointed that it didn’t rain in the rainforest while we were there, but not to worry, it started raining on our last night and lightly rained on our departure morning. It was fun to walk Murphy on the trails around the campground in the rain.
Speaking of rain, the visitor center had a board which showed the average annual rainfall is 138 inches, the current year-to-date rainfall is 50 inches, which is normally around 75 inches in August. The ranger shared that in January, Hoh usually gets 20 inches of rain and it only received 2. For the last several years, the average annual rainfall is steadily decreasing each year as well as the snow in the mountains which once melts, also feeds the rivers, which support the salmon, who feeds the trees. It is an amazing cycle in such a diverse biosphere, but yet so fragile.
We next head a bit north to explore more of Olympic National Park and its surrounding areas. Thanks for following along.
Walking in the rain in a rain forest is a treat Brenda, This trip continues to amaze Dave, and where’s the beach Murphy.