Olympic Peninsula Weekend

A few weekends ago Greg and I took a little trip out to the Olympic Peninsula.

We hit the road, stopping for tea and crumpets at Pike Place Market to fortify ourselves.

A ferry ride, a bit of highway and a very rainy stretch of road later we arrived at the Hoh Rainforest (yes, this is where the ipod was killed). We took a lovely rainy hike (about two miles) and then at twilight, spent some time exploring the riverbed of the Hoh River. We drove back to Port Angeles to stay the night at a hotel, where we could get toasty warm and dry.

The next morning we hit up Blackbird Coffee for some delicious Autumn lattes and drove out to Lake Ozette to walk on the extremely cool boardwalk trail out to the Pacific Coast. It was pretty spectacular nature viewing.

Due to high tide (and scary sand bugs) we weren't able to spend a lot of time on the beach, but it was a good place to stop. Did I mention it was a six mile hike? Yeah... us city girls don't do stuff like that too often. I was super proud of myself for accomplishing a good pace and you know, not dying.

The weather cleared up a bit on the drive back and we stopped for a bit at the beautiful Lake Crescent. A bit of curry warmed us up, and then we took a walk on the pier at Port Angeles... where I saw the most ridiculous and amazing moonset ever. No really. It was like Hollywood special effects awesome.

The next day we checked out of the hotel, grabbed some coffee and headed out of town. The day was very pretty, so we headed up to Hurricane Ridge, to brave the twisty roads and high altitudes. It was totally worth it.

We had a picnic and played wildlife bingo. (It ended in a draw). We did a bit of hiking and then drove (and ferry'd) back home. Dinner with G's folks was a nice homecoming surprise.

I took many more photos than these on the trip, of course, but I had to narrow it down to these favorites so it would fit in my LSNED book. :)

I am going to scrap the whole trip using OA Campfire, which won't hit stores for a bit. That's just fine with me, because I still have a bit of catching up to do on other projects.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend the Olympic Peninsula as a great place to see real Northwest Nature goodness up close and personal.