Wild Rainforest, Roaring Waterfalls, Dramatic Mountain Ranges, Massive Sea stacks, and Highly Aggressive Mountain Goats would all define my visit to the epic Olympic National Park.

Driving along the windy roads of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington, I was immediately struck by the sheer size of the park: measuring in at 1,442 square miles, the Park is larger than the State of Rhode Island. It is also one of the greenest places I have ever been, which is largely due to the crushing 12 feet of rain it receives per year.

Entering the park from the south near Lake Quinault, I got to experience this torrential rainfall first hand as I made my way up the west coast to an area called “Ruby Beach.” Following a short trail that involved tightrope walking/tripping along 30 feet of washed up wet tree limbs; I reached the beach, which features a series of dramatic sea stacks:

After getting back to my car, I made my way North East towards the Hoh Rain Forest, which is both one of the largest rain forests in North America and the home of the odd, heavily-bearded television personality Mick Dodge (aka the “Barefoot Sensei”). Unfortunately I did not run into Mick, but I did get a chance to walk along the beautiful “Hall of Mosses” trail:

On my way out of the Rain Forest, I encountered one of the oddest things about Olympic National Park: almost the entire center of the park is marked as “protected wilderness”-meaning that there can be no concrete roads or buildings built there. The net effect of this is that to for me to drive from the Hoh Rain Forest to my next stop, Sol Duc Falls, I had to circle nearly halfway around the park, despite the fact that they are only about 8-miles apart on my map.

This is a bit annoying- since it turns a 5-minute drive into an hour (+) drive- but it was established for a good reason: until 1938, the park was primarily managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS), who were tasked with managing and permitting the Timber companies in the area. Blinded by the massive profits they were making through this permitting system, the USFS nearly allowed the Timber companies to destroy the region and if not for a fortuitous visit from President Franklin D Roosevelt, they might have succeeded. As the story goes, Roosevelt, upon seeing the devastation the logging had caused, famously declared, “I hope the son-of-a-bitch who is responsible for this is roasting in hell” and quickly convinced Congress to both make the region a National Park and add additional protections to the Rain Forest to keep out determined loggers.

Anyways- roughly 1 hour later I would arrive at Sol-Duc Falls, which is a massive three-pronged waterfall in the Northern part of the Park. Historically, I’ve been known to be a bit reckless with my camera around waterfalls, usually finding a way to climb/fall into them while searching for the perfect shot; however, upon feeling the vibrations in the ground this powerful waterfall was causing, I decided I was content just standing on the various walkways around it:

The last stop for the day was at “Lake Crescent” which is all the way on the North side of the park. This is a beautiful blue lake situated in the mountains and reminded me of my time in Queenstown, New Zealand earlier this year:

—————Day #2———-

After spending the night in the town of Port Angeles, I headed out to one of the most famous hikes in the park: Hurricane Ridge. The main trek is about a 4 to 5 mile hike that provides unparalleled views of the Olympic Mountain range:

I also got to see a Marmot here for the first time- these things look like a cross between a hamster and a prairie dog and are apparently quite common in this region:

Finally, in an effort to circumvent the entire park, I chose one more hike before leaving: the remote and strenuous hike to the summit of Mt Ellinor. Located all the way down in the Southeast region of the park, the summit hike is a 6-mile trek through the forest and snow with an elevation gain of over 3000 feet. The terrain is brutal and it involves bouldering on ice and fighting off large mountain goats. Hikers ahead of me noted that the goats charged them if they got too close, so usually I would end up spending a solid minute staring the male down until he decided to move along. Here’s one photo my travel companion Daniel took of a father and son giving us the death stare:

Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see much of anything from the summit, but on my way down the mountain I did have a chance to grab this photo:

I spent two full days in Olympic National Park and I can say that without a doubt, this is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. Although it does require a significant amount of driving (expect to do a minimum of 3-4 hours per day), the scenery there makes it completely worth it. I am headed North East to Mt Rainier National Park- so long for now!

-Morgan