Then I walk among the flowers and trees, and I feel the earth beneath my feet.
Thus begins my epic photo!blog post about our trip last weekend to the Olympic Peninsula. I'll post some other pictures, including ones of my family that weekend, in a following post. BE WARNED, there's close to 100 pictures posted here, so it is very graphics-heavy! But we took over 200, so you're really just getting a tast of it all - to see ALL the photos, go here.
Since you've already seen Our Best Picture Ever, I will start with this one, take on the hike to Cape Flattery (more on that further down).
In and Around Port Angeles
Our lodgings - The Tudor Inn, built in 1906 I believe, and run by a very motherly woman named Betsy. Betsy is Most Amazing Cook Ever. True story.
The inn also has an 1857 Broadwood & Sons grand piano! Betsy was gracious enough to let me play on it (after I soothed her worries that I'd been playing since I was six years old, and therefore would treat the old girl with the respect she deserved).
Playing Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Closing her back up. A little out of tune, but for a 150 year old piano, it was really amazing! Betsy informed Shawn while I was playing that she hardly EVER lets anyone touch it, so she asked him to get a picture of it. I was very humbled by the trust she put in me to handle her instrument with care.
When I say that Betsy set a nice table for breakfast, I mean it!
We stayed in the Wedgewood Room. I'm sure you can see why it was named as such!
Our first night in, Betsy informed us that two of her other guests (frequent visitors, apparently) were playing at a winery down the highway, so Shawn and I decided to go.
Vineyards
The fountain out front of the rustic outdoor stage.
And the lanterns at the same stage.
So when we get there, and we get our cup of wine (Shawn had a syrah that was FAR too sweet, it was like a dessert wine!), we settled in to listen, and I realized, because Betsy had never said the names, that we were listening to Grammy-winning Tingstad & Rumbel! They played at UPS a few years ago, too. It was lovely music, but FREAKIN' COLD outside! Should have served hot mulled wine, in my opinion! (Sorry, pic is kinda dark).
On our first full day, Betsy helped us plan out our schedule for the trip. Because neither of us had really looked at where things were in relation to another, she gave us a map and some personal recommendations. Because the weather was fairly good (meaning it was only PARTLY cloudy, haha. There's a reason why Twilight is set in this region after all!), we decided on Hurricane Ridge and possibly the Sol Duc Hot Springs, by way of Lake Crescent for our first day. So we headed up to the ridge, by way of the ranger station to check on the visibility (lots of peaks and valleys, yay!). We arrived at the very top, and in the parking lot we saw Bambi and his mother!
Hurricane Ridge
That is Mamma above, and here is Baby.
Both black-tailed deer together, totally unfazed by the car.
Start of the trail at Hurricane Hill. We only went about 1/2 mile and back out.
You simply could not imagine anything more beautiful than the view. We paused frequently just to listen to the sounds of the ridge, like the wind sighing and an odd bird call (it sounded like a turkey!) and I watched the mists float around the mountaintops.
It looked like someone draped a dark green velvet blanket over the mountains, too. I don't think the camera can do it justice.
Shawn wandered among the trees, while I scolded him for going off the path! :)
He's the king of MY hill! But why so serious? (We also saw The Dark Knight on our 2nd night, heh).
I do not have a problem posing for the camera. Obviously.
Some flowers - here, Bluebells-of-Scotland
Thistle (I forgot the exact specification)
Paintbush
Yarrow, I think.
Lake Crescent & Lodge
We had lunch (squeezed in, actually, after the 2pm cutoff time!) at Lake Crescent Lodge. The lake is beautiful, the most amazing shades of blue and turquoise (glacial runoff, I believe). It was very peaceful.
A quickly-taken shot from the car in the morning. One of my favorite shots of the trip, actually.
I tried to convince Shawn to go kayaking, but he wasn't feeling up to getting soaking wet (as he says we will), haha.
He was all for relaxing this weekend!
We drove out to the Sol Duc Hot Springs, but it was so crowded that we decided to come back the next day (we ended up not making it at all. Oh well, next time!). On the way there, we stopped at one place, I believe it was called Salmon Creek (Salmon something-or-other, anyway). The water is SO clear!
Salmon Creek
Some people were fishing!
"If we were as tall as our shadows/How tall our shadows would be"
Hamadryad.
Le Boyfriend.
There's also some BIG FREAKING TREES there... over 200 feet tall. More tree pix on down a bit.
We went back to the winery that night for a wine tasting, and snagged a couple of bottles of Working Girl Wines. Yum!
Neah Bay is very pretty, and it turns out that Shawn has relatives who have a B&B out there! Why we didn't stay with them, I'll never know, haha. I didn't know 'til we were driving along Hood Canal from Portland. Silly boy.
We went to the Makah Indian Reservation, and went to the Museum. We had a VERY chatty tour guide that Shawn was irritated by after about 10 minutes of just talking, no looking at stuff. They had some amazing artifacts, 500 years old, that had been excavated from a landslide in Ozette. For instance, a piece of net used for fishing proved that the Makah were using nets prior to the arrival of the white man, and they ended up winning a case against the U.S. courts to protect their ancestral fishing practices.
Neah Bay
There was actually a guy at work who recognized this tree immediately from the Cape Flattery trail. It IS rather disctinctive, isn't it?
Happy trails to you...
Berries, of some kind or another.
Shawn got very snap-happy with the camera, haha. I'm so pleased that he took a lot of pictures, he was obviously enjoying the trip and wanted to capture the views!
Birdie.
Mossy Rocks... are mossy!
Just the two of us...
Tatoosh Island
Aaaaand, closer!
Looking out to Tatoosh Island, and the rock where the sea lions were sunning themselves!
The tree at the end of the hike - the westernmost point in the continental United States!
Our last day we took the long way around the Olympic Peninsula, in order to explore the Hoh Rainforest and then have a leisurely drive back. We did the Hall of Mosses trail in the rainforest, and it was absolutely gorgeous. And so green! The club moss draped itself over absolutely anything that stood still for a mere moment, and the ferns popped out everywhere.
Rain Forest Monarch info...
...and here's the tree!
A sea of ferns.
Shawn gazes with awe at the sheer height of these trees. So magnificent!
The circle of life is evident everywhere in the rainforest. A decomposing tree (or the tree's roots as seen here) provide a home and sustenance for smaller plant life.
A nursing log - sometimes a whole row of trees will grow out of the nursing log in a straight line.
When the nursing log eventually decays away, the remaining trees will have exposed roots, and look like they are up on stilts.
More trees!
Oak Grove
This tree (laying on its side) is over 200 feet long. It's really amazing when you can pace it off and realize just HOW LONG 200 feet can be!
Club moss and Sword ferns have a symbiotic relationship with the trees here - while they grow profusely (the amount of moss can weigh more than the tree!), they do no harm.
Inside a decomposing tree stump. I swear, it's like Ferngully in here! Too bad that was based on a rainforest in Australia...
Moss grows on everything...
Even the WATER is mossy!
'Shrooms, dude.
Woodpecker!
Shawn poking around some tree roots. Some were decent-sized caves!
The Shocker.
How to Look Skinnier - Stand in Front of Something Enormous! In all seriousness, though, in just laying my hand on the trunk, I could feel the most overwhelming sense of age and wisdom flowing from the centuries he had been standing there. Mayhap there IS a bit of dryad in me after all!
Yeah, I'm classy like that.
Awwww, yay!
On our way out of the rainforest, we stopped by some of the Big Trees - they are noted on maps of the area as "Big Sitka Spruce" and "Big Cedar Tee," so they are clearly noteworthy.
Big Cedar - Trees upon Trees!
"That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees" ~ Keats
Ferny Ferns.
Looking up through the inside of the Big Cedar.
Oh, a troll!
Inside the Big Tree by Lake Quinault. We didn't take as many pictures - we were ready to be heading home at this point (I bet you all wish we were done, too!).
Oh hay, hiking!
We stopped on the side of the road for one last round of photo shoots, this time at the beach. The island that is just left of center is Tatoosh Island (remember from the Cape Flattery pix?), and then just right of center is the point of Cape Flattery that we hiked out to the previous day.
Down the cliffs lies a waiting sandy beach.
There was this guy back at Cape Flattery who went off on some lecture to his friends about the erosion of the rock inside some watery caves, "I don't care what you say, there is NO WAY you can convince me that the water level wasn't once that high," even though nobody had said anything about it. So Shawn is telling me here that HE cannot be convinced that the water level wasn't once this high! Okay, so maybe you just had to be there...
And then Shawn hopped in the car and started driving away. I think he was tired of me talking, hahahaha. :P
So there are about 3 videos that I took, and Photobucket was bein' stupid about letting me upload them, I'll work on that for another post. We had the most amazing time (we are 2 for 2 on our road trips together being full of awesome!), and when I asked him which he liked better, Orcas Island or the Olympic Peninsula, Shawn said the peninsula. He felt that it is a little less "tamed," still rugged and natural. I loved them both in different ways, but I would definitely come back again - there's still stuff we didn't get to do!
Once by the Pacific
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.
~ Robert Frost
Since you've already seen Our Best Picture Ever, I will start with this one, take on the hike to Cape Flattery (more on that further down).
In and Around Port Angeles
Our lodgings - The Tudor Inn, built in 1906 I believe, and run by a very motherly woman named Betsy. Betsy is Most Amazing Cook Ever. True story.
The inn also has an 1857 Broadwood & Sons grand piano! Betsy was gracious enough to let me play on it (after I soothed her worries that I'd been playing since I was six years old, and therefore would treat the old girl with the respect she deserved).
Playing Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Closing her back up. A little out of tune, but for a 150 year old piano, it was really amazing! Betsy informed Shawn while I was playing that she hardly EVER lets anyone touch it, so she asked him to get a picture of it. I was very humbled by the trust she put in me to handle her instrument with care.
When I say that Betsy set a nice table for breakfast, I mean it!
We stayed in the Wedgewood Room. I'm sure you can see why it was named as such!
Our first night in, Betsy informed us that two of her other guests (frequent visitors, apparently) were playing at a winery down the highway, so Shawn and I decided to go.
Vineyards
The fountain out front of the rustic outdoor stage.
And the lanterns at the same stage.
So when we get there, and we get our cup of wine (Shawn had a syrah that was FAR too sweet, it was like a dessert wine!), we settled in to listen, and I realized, because Betsy had never said the names, that we were listening to Grammy-winning Tingstad & Rumbel! They played at UPS a few years ago, too. It was lovely music, but FREAKIN' COLD outside! Should have served hot mulled wine, in my opinion! (Sorry, pic is kinda dark).
On our first full day, Betsy helped us plan out our schedule for the trip. Because neither of us had really looked at where things were in relation to another, she gave us a map and some personal recommendations. Because the weather was fairly good (meaning it was only PARTLY cloudy, haha. There's a reason why Twilight is set in this region after all!), we decided on Hurricane Ridge and possibly the Sol Duc Hot Springs, by way of Lake Crescent for our first day. So we headed up to the ridge, by way of the ranger station to check on the visibility (lots of peaks and valleys, yay!). We arrived at the very top, and in the parking lot we saw Bambi and his mother!
Hurricane Ridge
That is Mamma above, and here is Baby.
Both black-tailed deer together, totally unfazed by the car.
Start of the trail at Hurricane Hill. We only went about 1/2 mile and back out.
You simply could not imagine anything more beautiful than the view. We paused frequently just to listen to the sounds of the ridge, like the wind sighing and an odd bird call (it sounded like a turkey!) and I watched the mists float around the mountaintops.
It looked like someone draped a dark green velvet blanket over the mountains, too. I don't think the camera can do it justice.
Shawn wandered among the trees, while I scolded him for going off the path! :)
He's the king of MY hill! But why so serious? (We also saw The Dark Knight on our 2nd night, heh).
I do not have a problem posing for the camera. Obviously.
Some flowers - here, Bluebells-of-Scotland
Thistle (I forgot the exact specification)
Paintbush
Yarrow, I think.
Lake Crescent & Lodge
We had lunch (squeezed in, actually, after the 2pm cutoff time!) at Lake Crescent Lodge. The lake is beautiful, the most amazing shades of blue and turquoise (glacial runoff, I believe). It was very peaceful.
A quickly-taken shot from the car in the morning. One of my favorite shots of the trip, actually.
I tried to convince Shawn to go kayaking, but he wasn't feeling up to getting soaking wet (as he says we will), haha.
He was all for relaxing this weekend!
We drove out to the Sol Duc Hot Springs, but it was so crowded that we decided to come back the next day (we ended up not making it at all. Oh well, next time!). On the way there, we stopped at one place, I believe it was called Salmon Creek (Salmon something-or-other, anyway). The water is SO clear!
Salmon Creek
Some people were fishing!
"If we were as tall as our shadows/How tall our shadows would be"
Hamadryad.
Le Boyfriend.
There's also some BIG FREAKING TREES there... over 200 feet tall. More tree pix on down a bit.
We went back to the winery that night for a wine tasting, and snagged a couple of bottles of Working Girl Wines. Yum!
Neah Bay is very pretty, and it turns out that Shawn has relatives who have a B&B out there! Why we didn't stay with them, I'll never know, haha. I didn't know 'til we were driving along Hood Canal from Portland. Silly boy.
We went to the Makah Indian Reservation, and went to the Museum. We had a VERY chatty tour guide that Shawn was irritated by after about 10 minutes of just talking, no looking at stuff. They had some amazing artifacts, 500 years old, that had been excavated from a landslide in Ozette. For instance, a piece of net used for fishing proved that the Makah were using nets prior to the arrival of the white man, and they ended up winning a case against the U.S. courts to protect their ancestral fishing practices.
Neah Bay
There was actually a guy at work who recognized this tree immediately from the Cape Flattery trail. It IS rather disctinctive, isn't it?
Happy trails to you...
Berries, of some kind or another.
Shawn got very snap-happy with the camera, haha. I'm so pleased that he took a lot of pictures, he was obviously enjoying the trip and wanted to capture the views!
Birdie.
Mossy Rocks... are mossy!
Just the two of us...
Tatoosh Island
Aaaaand, closer!
Looking out to Tatoosh Island, and the rock where the sea lions were sunning themselves!
The tree at the end of the hike - the westernmost point in the continental United States!
Our last day we took the long way around the Olympic Peninsula, in order to explore the Hoh Rainforest and then have a leisurely drive back. We did the Hall of Mosses trail in the rainforest, and it was absolutely gorgeous. And so green! The club moss draped itself over absolutely anything that stood still for a mere moment, and the ferns popped out everywhere.
Rain Forest Monarch info...
...and here's the tree!
A sea of ferns.
Shawn gazes with awe at the sheer height of these trees. So magnificent!
The circle of life is evident everywhere in the rainforest. A decomposing tree (or the tree's roots as seen here) provide a home and sustenance for smaller plant life.
A nursing log - sometimes a whole row of trees will grow out of the nursing log in a straight line.
When the nursing log eventually decays away, the remaining trees will have exposed roots, and look like they are up on stilts.
More trees!
Oak Grove
This tree (laying on its side) is over 200 feet long. It's really amazing when you can pace it off and realize just HOW LONG 200 feet can be!
Club moss and Sword ferns have a symbiotic relationship with the trees here - while they grow profusely (the amount of moss can weigh more than the tree!), they do no harm.
Inside a decomposing tree stump. I swear, it's like Ferngully in here! Too bad that was based on a rainforest in Australia...
Moss grows on everything...
Even the WATER is mossy!
'Shrooms, dude.
Woodpecker!
Shawn poking around some tree roots. Some were decent-sized caves!
The Shocker.
How to Look Skinnier - Stand in Front of Something Enormous! In all seriousness, though, in just laying my hand on the trunk, I could feel the most overwhelming sense of age and wisdom flowing from the centuries he had been standing there. Mayhap there IS a bit of dryad in me after all!
Yeah, I'm classy like that.
Awwww, yay!
On our way out of the rainforest, we stopped by some of the Big Trees - they are noted on maps of the area as "Big Sitka Spruce" and "Big Cedar Tee," so they are clearly noteworthy.
Big Cedar - Trees upon Trees!
"That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees" ~ Keats
Ferny Ferns.
Looking up through the inside of the Big Cedar.
Oh, a troll!
Inside the Big Tree by Lake Quinault. We didn't take as many pictures - we were ready to be heading home at this point (I bet you all wish we were done, too!).
Oh hay, hiking!
We stopped on the side of the road for one last round of photo shoots, this time at the beach. The island that is just left of center is Tatoosh Island (remember from the Cape Flattery pix?), and then just right of center is the point of Cape Flattery that we hiked out to the previous day.
Down the cliffs lies a waiting sandy beach.
There was this guy back at Cape Flattery who went off on some lecture to his friends about the erosion of the rock inside some watery caves, "I don't care what you say, there is NO WAY you can convince me that the water level wasn't once that high," even though nobody had said anything about it. So Shawn is telling me here that HE cannot be convinced that the water level wasn't once this high! Okay, so maybe you just had to be there...
And then Shawn hopped in the car and started driving away. I think he was tired of me talking, hahahaha. :P
So there are about 3 videos that I took, and Photobucket was bein' stupid about letting me upload them, I'll work on that for another post. We had the most amazing time (we are 2 for 2 on our road trips together being full of awesome!), and when I asked him which he liked better, Orcas Island or the Olympic Peninsula, Shawn said the peninsula. He felt that it is a little less "tamed," still rugged and natural. I loved them both in different ways, but I would definitely come back again - there's still stuff we didn't get to do!
Once by the Pacific
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.
~ Robert Frost
