Olympics

After saying goodbye to my mom at the airport in Seattle, I headed over to the Olympic Peninsula, thinking I might stay for a couple days and then try to squeeze in a trip back up to North Cascades National Park before I needed to be in Oregon at the end of the week. But the travel gods made clear that I would be a world-class idiot if I didn't just stay in the Olympics for the week by delivering once-in-a-lifetime weather: a week of gorgeous, warming sunshine. In the rainforest! What a gift. So I took advantage of it and stuck around as long as I could.

Hiked up Hurricane Hill with it's amazing views of Mount Olympus, plus sightings of endemic Olympic squirrels and Olympic marmots.

I was really excited about hunting down some undeveloped hot springs I read should be in the Elwha River Valley, and was bummed to learn they are temporarily closed. But the reason is a good one: the Elwha River dam is being disassembled over the course of several years, and the whole area is restricted due to the reclamation process. That's a good cause. Plus, salmon were spawning in the Elwha River for the first time in anyone's memory due to the progress made on dam removal. I have been spoiled by seeing a lot of salmon spawning in various places this summer, but all of the park employees in the Olympics were so outrageously excited about these pioneering salmon that I couldn't help but get excited, too.

I decided to take further advantage of the gorgeous days and go to the end of the road: Cape Flattery, the northeastern-most point of the contiguous U.S. I don't think the view up there ever gets better than this, not a cloud in the sky, and Vancouver Island visible in the very distant background.

I even took a hike to the breath-taking Shi-Shi beach (also on the Makah Nation Reservation lands).

Of course, no visit to the Olympics is complete without a stop in the Hoh Rainforest. Very sad to see these days of blissful Olympic wandering come to an end.