A little bit of a note to get started: I'm without service and definitely don't have wifi here in Olympic National Park, so posts will be somewhat infrequent and missing most photos. I'll do my best to update and show you all what we've been up to. There is a solid chance this will be my last post until Friday.
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"The beauty and charm of the wilderness are his for the asking, for the edges of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten roads of the present travel." - Theodore Roosevelt
Tuesday morning, we woke up in Rockport and had the van packed by 8:15 a.m. We ended up running into a solid amount of traffic getting into Seattle but were able to drop off Jesse and Maria in the city by about 11.
We said our goodbyes and wished them a fun day in Seattle before setting our focus on Olympic National Park. It ended up taking us roughly two hours to get to our campsite for the night, Skokomish Park at Lake Cushman.
It's a gorgeous and deep lake nestled in the mountains of the Olympic peninsula and only seven miles from Olympic National Park.
We immediately went to our site, unloaded and set up our tents, and took in a few views from our site. Only a short walk away from our site is the edge of the of the lake that gets very deep quickly. In the background of the lake are the mountains, some loaded with pines while others just shoot sharp rocks into the sky. We knew we had a lakefront site, but we didn't know it would also be so breathtaking.
At that point, it was about three in the afternoon, and it was decision time. With the midday heat ramping up and the sun honing in on its, jumping into the lake could not have been more appetizing. But at the same time, we also wanted to get ourselves into the park and do a simple hike.
Despite the heat, we thought it best to do the hike and then come back into the lake to cool down. So, back into the van we went. We were only 15 minutes from the entrance to the park, so our entry point quickly came.
The hike we had on the agenda was in the Staircase Rapids section of the park. After taking a somewhat narrow stone road to the ranger station and trailhead, we made our way across bridge spanning some water.
The trek through this part of the park took us through some heavily moss-covered trees with ferns and other forest ground growth taking over. Along the path, the river wound its way around humongous boulders and fallen over trees.
We only hiked a two-mile out-and-back path,making the large bridge that spanned the gaps our turnaround point. Elevation gain was minimal at about 300 feet. The rapids were not nearly as intense as they could be, which was a tad disappointing, but it happens that way sometimes.
Once back at the vehicle, we were on our way back to the campground. Everyone was eager to take a swim in the lake as well as use the rope swing to send ourselves a little further into the lake.
We ended up hanging out in the lake until about 7 p.m. By that point we were all getting hungry and decided to stop for the day and cook up our dinners. After that, we chilled and chatted by the campfire until about 11.
The campsite wasn't too buggy and the temperature fell into the low-60s, which made for a comfortable and relaxing night of sleep under the numerous stars.
We all got up by 8 a.m., ate our breakfast, and packed up our site. The road takes us to the northern edge of Olympic National Park today. We're going to check out Port Angeles, drive and hike up Hurricane Ridge, and then make our way along Lake Crescent to our campsite in the Sol Duc Falls section of the park.
It'll be a bit of driving mixed with hiking, and that makes for a long day. But we have a full day near the Sol Duc Falls on Thursday, so it will be comforting to not have to break down another campsite tomorrow morning.
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