Olympic Peninsula

This last weekend we took our first Big Trip. Since it was the last weekend that our friends Blake and Kris were living in Port Angeles before they moved to California, we decided to go visit them. We left early Saturday morning for out trip to the Olympic Peninsula; the most North-West part of Washington and the Continental United States. In order to get there, we had to take a car ferry across the Puget Sound from Edmonton to Kingston (ya mon). From there it was a 3 hour drive to the Dungenese Spit located in Sequim. The spit is basically a 7 mile sand bar that goes out into the Pacific Ocean. It creates a giant bay that is extremely calm. It also over looks Canada (eh).

Along the way we came across an old friend. Sammy the Salamander.

Our next stop was Lake Crescent. This is a 624 feet deep lake that was created by the glaciers from the last Ice Age. The water is a brilliant Aqua Blue and was absolutely stunning. From there we took a hike around the Olympic National Forest. There is a trail that lead to the Marymere Waterfall. Both the trek up there and the Waterfalls themselves are stunning. All of the trees are covered in lush mossy vegetation and ferns. I've been to the jungles of Costa Rica, but those don't even compare to what we saw here. I HIGHLY recommend everyone to get a chance to see it at least once in your life. I guarantee you will have a new respect for nature.

After the days activities we stopped over at Kris & Blake's for a giant Barbecue. It was mostly OPI (Olympic Peninsula Institute) and Americorps Non-profit group members attending, but we were made to feel very welcome.

The next day we awoke at 7:00am to begin the rest of our journey. Unfortunately we were greated with an abundance of rain. We had been fortunate enough to enjoy an absolutely Beautiful day on Saturday, but had not lucked out on Sunday. Regardless, this was not going to stop us from seeing the sites. Our first stop was Forks; home of Stephanie Meyers famed Twilight Series. Besides various references to the books, there was not a whole lot going on. The city is actually only a mile long with basically one street. From there we went to another Twilight landmark; La Push. This is a small Native American city on the West Coast. We wanted to hike to Second Beach, but it was raining way too hard for that.

Next stop was the Hoh Rain Forest. We were able to take the 10 mile road up to the ranger station, which gave us a chance to check things out without having to leave the shelter of the car. This is what I had imagined when I heard about the rain forest. With even more moss and ferns than the Lake Crescent trails, the Hoh Rain Forest was lush, green and full of life. We even saw a giant Elk running aross the river.

The final stop was at Ruby Beach. Since it was STILL raining we just looked from a far. This, along with pretty much everything we saw, will have to be seen again on a nicer day.

This is definitely one of the places [Olympic Peninsula] that we will visit again. We think it would be really fun to camp there on the Beach in La Push and maybe stay for an extra day. The drive back was a long one (4 hours) in the rain, but all in all it was WELL worth the trip.

The rest of the Pictures can be viewed at the below Address:

http://photo.net/photodb/slideshow?folder_id=906319

Also, I'm curious if people are actually reading these posts... And the Monday Night Monopoly score is 3-2 Chrissy.