Olympic National Park is on the northwestern tip of Washington, across the sound from Seattle, and the peaks around Mount Olympus live as a spectacular island in the sky. It is a unique park, due to its isolation during the last ice age, when its cliffs used to be surrounded by ice that was 8,000 feet deep. The park also has a rainforest, on the Pacific side, that boasts the most rainfall of anywhere in the continental U.S. due to moisture from the Pacific immediatly hitting the steepness of these mountains.
We visited the park for three days (one of which was not a rainy day!). We saw waterfalls, rivers, rugged terrain, and loved seeing the salmon jumping the waterfalls to go upstream to spawn. The drive up to the top of Hurricane Ridge was amazing, and Ted could not resist taking his bicycle out of the back bed of the truck… he rode down the 3,500’ decline in 12 miles from Hurricane Ridge to the park entrance station. In addition, we rode bicycles up a two-mile closed road (due to a washout) and enjoyed some unique views, that we also gained while driving down to Sol Duc Hot Springs.
Please enjoy some of our pictures of Olympic National Park, and click here if youd like to see a video of our hike to the top of Hurricane Ridge —- https://youtu.be/m5xjhPMTXqE
