Olympic National Park - Part 3 of 3

In part 2 we were camped at Sol Duc and finished our hike to Sol Duc Falls and a birthday dinner out for Mr UAW. We knew it was going to rain the next day in the afternoon so we planned to go to Lake Crescent. It was about a 45 minute drive.

Lake Crescent is a beautiful lake, one of the prettiest that I've ever seen. It's a 624 feet deep lake with clear blue waters. The lake has very little nitrogen in it, that limits the growth of phytoplankton, tiny plants (like algae) that float in the water. This makes the water very clear, and you can see down as far as 60 feet. The clarity of the water and the weather that day gave the lake a blue color. The coming storm had no wind to it so the waters were calm, like glass. Apparently there are two types of fish found only here in the whole world-Beardslee and Crescenti trout, and you can fish for them-there is a catch and release requirement though.

We went to the Storm King ranger station. There we found the most helpful ranger I've ever had. He was a wealth of information. We told him what time frame we had and he suggested hikes around the area. He also had information on other places in the Park that we could explore. Mora campground was a possible destination for our next place to stay and he had information on that too.

We started on a hike to Marymere Falls, a 90 foot waterfall about a mile away. The lake was too pretty to just walk by so we had to stop and take pictures.

Calm waters before the coming rain 

I love the pop of red here, just a few more weeks and the trees would change color too 

The clarity of the water was amazing

Continuing on our hike to the falls, we went thru a old growth forest. There were huge trees, moss everywhere (but not as much as the Hall of Mosses), and everything was so green. 

Bridge leading to the falls 

Marymere Falls 

Hiking back to the lake we could tell it was going to rain soon. We had planned to eat one of our backpacking meals but decided to eat in the Lake Crescent Lodge restaurant. Sitting by the window we could watch the incoming storm move over the lake while enjoying our meal that was reasonably priced. 

Before the rain we enjoyed a few moments sitting here 

Lake Crescent Lodge 

It rained harder and harder as we finished our meal. Now we had to find our way back to the car, about a 0.5 mile hike. It turned out to be a longer hike because some of the trail signs were down and we guessed wrong on one of the turns. 

Bench found on our way back to the car

Arriving back at our camp we found most everything ok. Our pop up was starting to leak. The small pin holes in the top allowed too much water to come down. It looked like it was going to be a trash item soon. Luckly we didn't have much underneath it. Since it was raining and we had the whole afternoon to do something, the mineral hot springs at Sol Duc Resort looked like a good idea. They have 3 different pools: hot and hotter, and a kid pool. There was also a regular swimming pool, but it was closed for maintenance. This was also a great opportunity to grab a shower! 

Picture from advertisement- I didn't feel like taking my camera in there. 

That night it rained and rained-the second storm that we went thru-it is the rain forest after all. Next morning most of our stuff was wet under the pop up. I put my chair under the table and that helped to keep it dry. Most of the wet stuff could just be wiped off. Mr UAW's chair was wet tho. Everything in the tent was doing great. We had to pack up and get to our next destination. The rain had stopped which made packing a bit easier. We used all of our garbage bags for the wet things, telling ourselves that we would stop in Forks on the was to Mora Campground to pick up some more. 

Forks was an interesting town. There was only one stop light and we seemed to catch it red all the time. It gave us time to look around. Apparently the Twilight movie series is based here and the town takes all the advertising advantages they can from this fact. Twilight posters for many vampire, werewolf, activities were displayed. On our way back home we stopped in a local diner and found that the kids coloring actives were cartoon pictures of vampires. The information booth for the town has the population as 3,175 and the population of vampires as 8.5. Forks does have a great store in town that has groceries and hardware items. Garbage bags were easy to find as well as a few treats. 

Mora campground was pretty empty and stayed empty despite it being the weekend. Maybe it was the threat of an incoming storm that kept people away. While we were in Forks the locals said another storm was coming in that evening and another one would be there the next day, the second one with 40 mph winds. The evening storm would be our 3rd rain storm to weather. Knowing all of this we still set up the tent - wet from the last destination. We also set up the pop up but put that extra tarp over the top of it, one of the longer ends held up by old tent poles that were saved over the years. 

With camp set up and the rest of the day ahead of us, we wanted to go to to Rialto Beach before the next storm came upon us. Rialto Beach was interesting. There wasn't much sand, just lots of rocks, all flat like skipping stones and in various sizes-from dimes to salad plate size. Of course the sea stacks were amazing and there was sea-carved arch about 1.5 miles north on the beach called Hole in the Wall. And the drift wood! It was all so big and sometimes you had to climb over it to continue up the beach. Silly us we did not take our rain gear with us on this hike. It did start raining but it was just a 20 minute rain. We sheltered under one of the large driftwood logs that were thrown up on the beach. 

You can really see the beach rock here 

Hole in the Wall 

Little me in front of a sea stack 

Notice how big that log is next to Mr. UAW

And the logs are huge and tangled up-did find some sand on this part of the beach

The pelicans were having a feast here. There was some type of fish that were abundant and they were not going to miss out on a meal. I could have watched them all day. Apparently I didn't see this one flying over me....

Back at camp it started to rain. Our tarp over the pop up idea was working great. 

a rather wet tent-on the outside

Our gear weathered the storm overnight however we did notice that things in the tent were starting to get damp. There was no full on water in there, but underneath the sleeping mats the tent floor was somewhere between damp and wet. There was one more storm for us to go thru with 40 mph winds and we only wanted to see one more beach-a short drive from camp. We decided to visit the beach and pack it up for home. So we didn't stay the last night but it was probably a good call. We had seen everything we had come to see and it didn't seem necessary to go thru another storm. The garbage bags we bought came in so handy for this pack up. 

Things we did right for this trip: 

One was to get the big plastic containers for our gear.

Also using the garbage bags was great to keep the wet and dry items separate, that really helped for getting set up the last camp spot. Bringing all the rain gear was a must, hats, jackets, rainpants, shoes. Waterproofing items was a good idea too because you definitely got wet. Using just the jet boil and backpacking food was also a good idea-easy and quick hot meals. 

Things we needed to do better: 

Bring more than 2 tarps for this kind of trip. Our tent bottom might have not gotten damp had we used a dry tarp when setting it up at the last place. 

I needed a rain hat separate from my rain jacket for the hot springs, so don't forget in the future. 

We could have used an extra lantern. 

Remember to bring your rain gear on every hike. 

Car before we left, looking neat and clean 

Car at home before unpacking. Notice garbage bag box out for quick access 

It took a week to dry out from this trip because at home the weather had changed and Fall and rain was upon us. We found a dry sunny day to put things outside and then to make sure they were dry we didn't pack them up, we put them loose in the house. 

It was a great trip and I'd do it again. Next time I would like to see some of the things on the east side of the Park, and maybe the Hurricane Ridge area. And we are always interested in the beach so we will probably end up at Kalaloch again.