August 11: Olympic National Park
Bob: Back in 1972, our old 1960 Chevy blew its engine, we ran out of money, and we never did get to drive all the way around the Olympic National Park. So it was with great pleasure that we were able to circle around the park in its entirety on this visit. Our first stop was just down the road from Elwah campground, where we took a short walk along a pretty lake and into the deep, dark rain forest to see a small waterfall. With the huge trees forming columns around us, and the filmy draperies of Spanish moss adorning many of the tree branches, the forest felt very much like a cathedral complete with sunlight streaming through the trees as through a stained glass window and a little waterfall in its apse. Quite an experience! |
Monika: We decided to take our time driving around the Olympic Peninsula and stopping at the various interesting walks that the park service offered. Our first stop was at a large lake on the northern end of the park. People were enjoying the beautiful day by kayaking on the lake. We walked a nice loop trail that took us through the rain forest to a waterfall. The trees were as tall and majestic as I remembered and the waterfall a little jewel amongst them. |
Bob: An integral part of the temperate rain forests featured in the Olympic National Park are the old, decaying, moss-covered logs that litter the forest floor. Monika's sharp eye found several that she thought resembled animals during our walk--see if you see any animals in the pictures below! |
Monika: I just love taking pictures of trees especially downed trees that remind me of animals or mystical figures. |
Bob: After our nice walk we drove the perimeter road around the park for a couple hours until we reached the branch road cut into the rain forest in the heart of the park. That section of rain forest is nestled in the lower ridges of the central mountain massif that forms the heart of the park, and which by forcing the westerly winds upward, induces all the rainfall that creates the rain forest. We hopped back out of the car to take another walk and were rewarded with seeing even more of the odd tree shapes that characterize this unique ecological niche. We saw some trees bent in a big "U" completely across the forest path, and "nursery logs" that were the trunks of old dead trees upon which the seedlings of the next generation of huge trees could take root and grow up toward the sunlight. There was also a kind of gallery of trees where we were completely surrounded by old, moss-covered limbs with Spanish moss hanging down. Amazing! |
Monika: We continued our drive along the perimeter road, until we got to a turn-off into the heart of the rain forest. Here too they had a loop walk and we enjoyed being surrounded by ancient trees towering above us with moss hanging down. |
Bob: Returning to the Pacific Coast, we drove South a bit until we found a bit of the park right on the sea shore. We hiked the short trail down to the water's edge and saw a small island just off shore, crowned with trees but with steep, cliffs plunging into the water on all sides. It is a remarkable sight and looked about the same as when we ventured out this way decades back. The other thing we distinctly recalled was the tangle of driftwood trucks that littered the shore. Those trunks are old trees washed down to the shore from the rain forests upstream, and then tumbled together on the beach and bleached by the salt. I remember them from our last visit in part because I took some small, bleached branches along with us back home to make mobiles with, and we still have those! So sometimes, just sometimes, you can really go home again, at least if "home" is a part of a well-preserved National Park! It is comforting, somehow, to be able to see some scenes from your past preserved as you get older, especially for those of us who have moved about during our life and are thereby rather rootless. |
Monika: On we drove. We now came to the Pacific Coast. On a previous trip we had taken the small road to the most northwest corner of the lower 48 states. There was not much to see there, so we skipped it and instead stopped at one of the parking areas along the coast. It had a steep path leading down to the water's edge, and since it was a National Park it was in its pristine state with trees that had come down from the mountains strewn all along the beach. What great photo opportunities! |
Bob: After a day of driving and several walks, we were both low on energy by that evening. Although we considered camping again, I think we were both just too tired, so instead we continued South to the nearest city (Aberdeen, Washington) and found a motel there to stay the night. |
Monika: We tried to stop at one of the campsites along the coast. But they were all full, even the overflow one with no facilities. Oh well, so we decided to drive on and stop at the little town of Aberdeen at the southern end of the Olympic Peninsula. |
August 12: Aberdeen, Washington to Portland, Oregon
Bob: We were excited to see a piece of coastal southwest Washington and northeastern Oregon that we had not seen before, so we enjoyed our drive down the coast. Although the hills inland from the shore were filled with forests of tall trees, farmland, and pastures, the coast itself was generally flat. The sandy/muddy texture of the wetlands on the shore reminded us of the "Watt" in northern Germany, which is more compacted sand than mud, and actually quite enjoyable to walk on although it is dangerous to get caught on the Watt if the tide is coming in! Once across the bridge over the Columbia River into Oregon, we finally turned to the East to drive to Portland where we had a small coterie of relatives waiting for us. We stayed first with my niece Patience and her husband, and then shifted over to my nephew Bill's house to see all his family. By splitting our time that way we managed to see as many of my relatives as was possible in the short amount of time we had available, so at the end of our family visit we were ready to begin our long journey home. |
Monika: To drive to Portland where we were expected by Bob's niece, we decided to continue driving along Highway 101, that more often than not was closed to the coast or at least next to tidal flats. It was an interesting drive and sure more fun than the interstate. |
