Olympic National Park, Washington

Situated just to the west of Seattle, this huge protected wilderness compromises of hundreds of miles of pristine coastline, stunning beaches, rain forest, lakes, glaciers  and mountains.  We did not actually see the peak of Mount Olympus itself, as just the week before we had spent a few days at Mount Rainier and visited its glacier.  With little time to spare we agreed we would rather spend our time checking out the coastline, craving for the sea after a month of travelling across landlocked central states. The last time we saw the ocean was in Atlantic City, and we didn't even make it onto the beach then as it was so cold! Olympic National Park really has so much to offer that we could easily have spent a week there and not seen it all.

We visited four or five beaches around the northern and western coastline of the park.  Each one was unique, I can't say I had a favorite  we both really enjoyed them all. The Pacific coast is wild and blustery with a biting chill in the wind. The most memorable beach of all was Rialto beach, just across the Quillayute river from La Push.  We had a lot of fun clambering over a wall of driftwood trees which the waves had dumped haphazardly along the pebbled beach.  Putting our balance and bravery to the test we strode along the upper logs with sea breeze in our faces and salt in the air, quite exhilarating!.  The sea battered logs were bleached white and completely stripped of bark.  I loved the gnarled shapes of the roots and the contrast of their shadows, and ended up with far too many photos to fit in this blog post.

La Push beach is a gorgeous sandy beach, more sheltered from the wind with a calmer sea. We did not stay there long, just a few photos and off we went again.
       Next was Ruby beach which is a local favorite, partly golden sand, partly pebbles with some fantastic sea stacks. It is apparently called Ruby beach due to the colours seen at sunset. Unfortunately we could not stay until dusk, but we did enjoy a gentle jog along its shore and once out of sight of any other living souls we huddled up together and took in the power and beauty of the pacific ocean, and enjoyed the peace and solitude.

To my surprise, we also discovered the real towns of Forks and La Push off of the Twilight Saga. The deeply forested road looked just the same as in the movie too. There were a few touristy signposts, one of which marked the treaty line.  Sadly ladies I did not bump into Jacob or Edward at the beach.  Adam described Twilight as "the story that changed the legend of vampires from uncompromising, bloodthirsty demons to whiny, angst-ridden perpetual teenagers", so I get the feeling he wasn't quite as impressed as me.

We explored the ancient Hok rain forest, it was a truly magical feeling wandering among the hanging moss gardens. The insects as usual were not so friendly so we almost sprinted along the trail, barely stopping for photos. As soon as we did stop the little blighters had us for lunch.  There were a couple of fallen wasps nests in and among the huge tree roots, which neither of us had never seen before. Not a good idea to hang around these for too long either as we found out, they tend to chase after you for quite a while! We didn't have any encounters with other wildlife in Olympic NP although bears do live in the forests and Elk are common. 

On our last night we camped at South Beach.  It was a perfectly clear and warm evening lending itself well to a perfect sunset.  I spent a good hour photographing the magnificent colours in the sky, sea and the silhouettes as the sun set...as you can see.  Stunning!