The Olympic Peninsula

From Portland, we made the loooong drive to the Olympic Peninsula.  Our destination for the night was Kalaloch Campground along the Pacific coast.  After a four hour drive, we showed up at the campground just in time to grab one of the last open spots and walk down to the beach for sunset.  It was a beauty.  Waking up to the sunrise on Mount Hood to seeing the sunset at the Pacific Ocean is a pretty good day in my book.

Saturday morning we began our tour around the Olympic Peninsula via car.  From the Kalaloch Campground we followed Route 101 clockwise around the peninsula through Forks all the way around to Port Angeles.  One of the highlights of this journey was Lake Crescent (seen below).  The lake was a deep blue surrounded by mountains on all sides.  Beautiful.  

Once we reached Port Angeles we entered Olympic National Park via Hurricane Ridge Road.  After the beautiful seventeen mile drive up to Hurricane Ridge, we arrived to stunning 360 degree views of the Olympic Range.  A quick stop in the visitors center and we were off to Obstruction Point for our final hike of the trip.  From Obstruction Point we did a loop hike into Grand Valley via the Grand Pass Trail.  The main destination was two alpine lakes, Grand Lake and Moose Lake.  Moose Lake was especially beautiful, a deep green alpine lake surrounded by blake shale and abundant forest.  A spectacular sight.   From the lakes we took Badger Pass Trail back up to the trailhead through deep forest and many alpine meadows filled with screeching marmot.  This hike was one of my favorite of the entire trip...alpine meadows, views of the Olympic range, alpine lakes, wildlife.

We spent our final night of camping at Heart O The Hills Campground in the National Park.  It was a nice relaxing evening soaking up our last night in the wild.  Sunday morning we made the two hour drive back to Seattle.  We got to spend most of the afternoon in Seattle before having to head to the airport to catch our flights home.  We hit a couple of the famous tourist spots...Pike Place Market, Pike Brewery, the Space Needle, Olympic Sculpture Park, and Gas Works Park.  The view from Gas Works Park over Lake Union towards downtown Seattle was especially memorable.

I can't say enough good things about the Pacific Northwest.  It's a place that everyone needs to visit.  The abundance of blue waters and green forested mountains is unlike any other place.  I couldn't be more blessed to be able to take trips like this with my brother, Abe.  Let's plan another!