We drove west down highway 101, past Lake Crescent. The lake is an amazing shade of blue (apparently due to lack of nitrogen in the water which inhibits algae growth). There are a few houses dotted along the edge - truly it would be an amazing view to wake up to every morning. One can only dream.
Once past this we headed south down the amusingly named "sole duck" road, past the hot springs to the trail head to commence our hike into the forest.
The forest was even more spectacular than what we'd seen the day before. The trees are all gigantic, and the fact there was still 20cm of snow made it a strange contrast between the green all around, and the white on the ground. That even rhymes. Oh well.
There was a small shelter in the forest where you can see a bit of the snow...
...and as it's all melting, there are lots of little streams and waterfalls as you walk.
We made it a couple of miles to Sol Duc Falls. Standing here on the bridge I was being lightly sprayed by the water mist from the falling column of water.
It was really peaceful, so we had some lunch and tried to figure out where the trail went from here, as it was totally covered in snow. We walked a little further, but decided against going on, as we kept falling through the melting snow, and basically you couldn't see where the trail was supposed to go.
I've never seen trees this big. Off the path the forest was super dense. It was hard to shoot a scene that really portrayed the size of everything. That's why I'm not Chung I suppose.
You can clearly see the snow on the ground here:
After this we headed back down the road, found another trail, and went up that. Or should I say down. I don't know. There was plenty of down until we came to a river.
I was sure happy to have a little sit down at this point, before heading all the way back UP to the Jeep. What's with this up and down business. I need to find myself a portable levitation device to make the hills easier.
Continuing the series of "random fungi that no-one cares about":
....and random picture of strange plant/flower.
This one looks a bit like Kat is wearing a giant mushroom hat.
I was fairly tired by this point, so we thought we'd call it a day. As we headed down the road we saw a sign that said "Salmon Cascades". I didn't think we'd see any salmon, but a guy there said he's seen them jumping. Lo and behold, there they were, a few salmon trying to make their way upstream to spawn. I even managed to get a photo!
This is what the poor little buggars were trying to swim up (the shot above is taken in the lower right of the shot below). Apparently though due to overfishing and damming and the like there are very few salmon left around here.
Sunday - Elwha
Given it was very close to the campground, we set off up to the Whiskey Bend trailhead. It was a one lane road up the mountain and was as close to off-roading as the Jeep has gotten so far.
It was really warm on Sunday, and I assume that we must have been a lot lower as there was no snow in the forest at all. It was a little taste of summer I suppose, and I imagine that it would be amazing here in a couple of months, although perhaps a little hot.
There were trails heading off over 40 miles from this trailhead. I don't know how fit or keen you would have to be to walk 40 miles in the forest. It feels completely beyond me, ever. Kat looks pretty comfortable though.
This squirrel looked a bit satanic.
We hiked a couple of miles to the end of the trail, next to a river at a spot called Goblin Gates.
A giant tree had fallen over the gap...
We couldn't quite figure out where it had fallen from, but I'd hazard a guess that it was from somewhere above :-)
We thought it would be a nice place to stop and have some lunch. It's not every day that this is where you get to sit down and enjoy a couple of sandwiches and this fine view.
The water was amazingly blue as well, and the rocks were all layered and such. Very cool looking.
Holy crap the walk up was hard work. There was a signpost at the top that availed me a little seating when we arrived. In my defence, I do have 10-15kg extra of camera equipment in my bag.
There was a tree, with rock embedded in it. How odd.
And some beautiful orchids.
On the way back we met Mr. Ed. He was a very personable chap.
Now you'd think this would be enough activity for one day... I say no!
We finally got around to fixing the poo valve. A bit of hacksawing and bashing later, the old stinky one was off, and with surprisingly little effort the new one was on. Check out this SHINY NEW grey/black water valve assembly.
Finally after 6 months we have a fully operational toilet system again. Yay!
The microwave has been playing up a bit, so we pulled that out as well.
Glad we did, as the socket was all burnt and toasty looking. Hmm.....
Nachos on the Weber = WIN!
1 comment:
Oh, how manly you've become, it is enlivening to behold. Keep up the grunt....
Fantastic parks, it seems too. *envious*
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