I am just back from a fantastic trip from the Olympic
national park. What can I say about the park! I am not so much of a nature
lover or that’s what I thought I was , but this place is really worth giving a
shot even if you have just 2 days in hand , which Is what I had !. So it’s the summer time (June)with temperatures over 70 degree F
and I thought I should explore the Olympics as much as I can when the time is
right . I can’t bear the cold much so I don’t know if this experience would
have changed if I had visited the same places in winter! The beauty about the
ONP is that 101 highway circulates all around the forest and there are lots of
sign boards. We got a map from the hurricane ridge visitor center which was
more than enough to give us directions...So my point here is, it’s all very
easy to figure out if you know where to go!
We took the 10:30 ferry from Edmonds on a Sunday morning. It
was about 30 minutes’ drive from Redmond and the traffic was not that much , may be because
it was a Sunday . We thought we would be getting the ferry at 11 but we
reached earlier and were the last to board the ferry! The ferry was
decently crowded and even before we knew it we reached Kingston. We checked the
phone app and took the road to Port Angeles. We reached Port Angeles around 11
30 am or so, and headed straight to the Asian cuisine buffet place. We had some
Chinese, Thai mix food and the buffet was really huge considering that the
price was only 9 dollars or so per person. After that we headed straight to the...
1)
Hurricane Ridge.
There is a visitor center in the bottom of
the ridge and we stopped there to collect all the information about the same. The
people were so warm and nice. We had to pay a 15 dollar fee (Includes car fee)to see the
ONP(Olympic Nat park), and it was valid for 7 days and can be used at any
entrance like quinolt , kaloloch , cresent , forks etc. …We paid the money and
started our ride . I do not know how to describe the ride as it’s a must see!
We stopped and took pics from many places. There were points were we could see Victoria,
(Canada) and many other adjacent islands from far. It’s so nice to know that we
could see a country from such a short distance! Then we reached the top of the hurricane
ridge which was just breath taking! It
was a sunny day so the sun glazed though the mountains far by... I saw few deer’s
too and lots of people having food enjoying the mountain view. The day was not windy and what can I say it was just perfect for a person like me who dislike the cold ! . I didn’t
have to wear any jacket (thank goodness!). We took some pics and then we went
to the visitor center at the top and bought few souvenirs …We decided to climb a hill nearby to get a better view ,
but climbed only half way which I feel little disappointed now!. I had other plans
for the day and I thought that may be an hour or so for the hike would mean
that we would compromise seeing other places which was a big No No for me. But
if you have the time and the energy I highly recommended it. People who climbed
said they got a 360 degree full view, and could see Victoria, Canada and
mountains from a distance and am pretty sure that it would have been a
memorable view. Nevertheless this hurricane ridge is a must see!
2) Lake Crescent
We got down from the hurricane ridge and
then drove through 101. We were thinking that there are many access points to
see the lake. We went past few roads and a nice guy told us that there is only
one access where you can get a good view and that is the lake Cresent lodge. So
we drove up till the lake crescent lodge and the view was amazing. Again
the sun was up high and it was warm and not windy... There were lots of
children taking a bath in the warm lake and lots of people , kayaking. We went to
the crescent lodge to get some soveneiers but didn’t find anything which we
liked . After clicking few pics we headed to the next destination which was the
sol duc falls... We were thinking of doing kayaking in the lake here but
again we had limited time, so I think that would be a great thing to do if
you guys had more time in hand …
3) Sol duc falls
If you looked
at the map you would see that it’s very easy to reach all these places as they are
all accessible via the 101 (thanks to the 101 highway which is beautifully maintained).
I was appreciating the efforts which the government takes to manage the whole
forest and also the roads .There was a small hike, I think about a mile or so 1
way and then we reached the falls. I am scared of heights but I still couldn’t
get enough of these falls...Lots of people say that it’s not that great
compared to Niagara or the Snoqualmie falls . But I have not seen Niagra and have
seen Snoqualmie only from far, but here was a fall where we could see from
a hand reach distance and to add to my fear and excitement I was actually
standing on top of the water fall...The water was falling steeply and the force
with which it fell drenched my hair a little bit it but it was an amazing feeling to
be so close to nature!. While we were heading back, we met a very nice old
American couple and they gave us tips on where to eat etc. and it was fun talking to them !
It was getting
late around 8 30 and we still had not checked in the hotel. So we headed back ,
checked in and ended the day with fantastic pizza to go from “West side pizza”
They are open till 11 pm , so it was perfect for us to have a nice dinner (Veggie pizza) after
taking a warm shower . The crust was neither too soft nor hard and it was a
perfect way to end the day having pizza and seeing a nice movie (godfather part
1) in Olympic lodge.
We ate at the"
first street havens" and the food was delicious .No wonder they have such good
reviews in yelp! I ate an avocado sandwich and it was super! After that we
headed to see the
1) Hoh rain
forest
There are few
trails which we can take in this forest. We took 2 trails. One was moss trail
(0. 8 miles) and the other one was the spruce trail (1.3 miles). There was a
Hoh river trail which was about 8 miles which we didn’t take as we thought it
may be too big a walk for us. The 2 trails showed some of the oldest trees
which were so huge that they covered the whole of the area. It looked to me as if they were there for thousands of years ! Luckily it was
sunny day. We saw lots of plants which were growing on top of other plants.
They are called as epiphytes. We covered the trails quickly but we did stop and
take lots of pictures. I think twilight serial was shot here and in the forks
area as we saw lots of boards saying “welcome to the twilight “ etc. …On the
way back we saw the HOH river and took photos. The water was crystal clear and
from the glaciers. So it was extremely cold. We washed our faces with it and
instantly felt fresh...How refreshing it would be to take a bath in
such fresh water every day!
2) Ruby beach
Our next
destination was the ruby beach. It was just about 30 mins drive from the hot
rain forest. This beach is just few minutes from the parking lot. It was nice
to experience the Pacific Ocean from such a close distance. The tides were not
too harsh so we could walk and play around the area… I searched in google as to
which beach was better - Ruby or the Rialto and we got mixed results . Both beaches are nice but visiting Rialto means a slight walk from parking lot (as per the yelp reviews)..As we didn’t want to go to any
more beaches we skipped rialto …
We had not had
our lunch. So we stopped at a Chinese restaurant in Forks. We had a nice
refreshing lunch and we were deciding as to where to go next. We noticed that
our petrol tank was almost exhausted and the worst part was that we couldn’t
find any gas stations nearby. We found few gas stations on our way to port Angeles but they were either
closed or were not accepting the credit cards. Finally we found one (chevron)
in port angels and were relived! We called up the ferry and the next ferries to
Edmond were at 9 40 and the last one at
11 05 pm .We thought we shall go back to the hurricane ridge and climb the hill
to get the 360 degree view which we missed the previous day . We reached the
bottom of the ridge and then suddenly we noticed that the sun was going down. It
was also getting chilly and going to be 7 pm! It was not worth the effort of going
up the hill taking 30 mines drive and then doing a 1 hour climb to the top of
the hill. Also we were in hurricane and from there we need to reach Port Angeles
and then to Kingston which was about 1.5 hour’s drive . So we decided to head back. Another
thing which we were concerned was if the hood canal may get closed . Hood canal
is the one which we need to pass to reach Kingston. The drive in hood’s canal
is about 2 mines approx. If the hood canal gets closed then we will be stuck in
port angels and need to stay there another day which was not there in our plan.
Thankfully for us we reached Kingston by 10 10 pm and the next ferry was at 11
05 pm. We thought we shall walk a little bit but was beginning to feel little
chilly. Then we saw this crepe place. Crepes are like India doses and we have
eaten there before when we came here for the lavender festival. We decided to order
2 vegetarian crepes. It was close to 6 / 7 dollars for one and was very heavy. I highly recommend these crepes to an one coming to Kingston. This place is close to the ferry (in fact walkable distance) .By
the time we had the crepes, it was about 10 50 pm and was boarding time. We
reached Edmonds after 30 mines ferry and reached home around 12 15 pm.
All in all it
was a fantastic trip and I felt I was in nature's lap .I have not met any one who had been to this national park and disliked the experience . Of course there are many
places to see in ONP, but I think given the 2 days’ time we saw maximum number
of places and ate in some of the awesome restaurantsJ. I hope my trip review helps
people who are looking to see the ONP in may be 2 days time .Have a nice time guys J, you won’t regret it
but just plan where you need to go as ONP is spread for miles and miles so just
pick the places you want to see or things you want to do . Also keep in mid to
fill the petrol as soon as you see a gas station and don’t wait till it dries up!
Have a safe trip
