Following in the footsteps of Snow and Waterfalls on The Road to Paradise in Mt Rainier National Park, on my second weekend of Seattle trip, my friend once again lined up an incredible National Park adventure. This time to see Olympic National Park! Oh, what an adventure it was!!
Friday…
We hit the road after work on Friday and I didn’t know what to think when I was asked if I was afraid of heights. I’ve been a few very high observation decks, including having a blast Looking Down on Dubai from Berj Khalifa's 148th Floor, so I say no right away, but was still “interested” (not worried!!) about what was ahead. I was so happy to see that we getting to walk across the bridge at Deception Pass which is about 180 feet (55 meters) above the ocean below.
What a spectacular place to take a selfie. I’m thinking that with those glasses of mine coupled with the right black fedora I might get to be in a remake of The Blues Brothers. I don’t think we had a 106 miles to go, but we did have a full tank of gas, it was getting dark, and we were wearing sunglasses. 
We saw a couple of sea lions below and I did get a crappy photo of the big hawk perched on a tree near our vehicle just as it decided to fly away.
We pushed on a stop a couple of times at little towns along the way, but our next major waypoint was the little town of Coupeville to catch a ferry. We were slightly ahead of schedule which allowed us to visit Fort Casey and in addition to see the old naval artillery gun battery we got to see the Admiralty Head Lighthouse.
Yes, it is short and unlike many lighthouses in the Southwestern US, but this beautiful structure did not need to be tall as it was on the edge a substantial cliff overlooking the water. On the way down to the ferry a cute deer presented herself. We would see many more on this trip.
We took our 30-ish minute ferry ride over to the beautiful city of Port Townsend where we found some dinner and some nice art and pretty places.
It was dark after we finished eating and had a relaxing drive to Port Angeles where we called it a night.
Saturday…
I did not realize it the night before, but this seaside town was one of the formal entrances into the Olympic National Park. My friend had been wanting to drive up the mountain road called Hurricane Ridge. I got some great pictures about halfway up at the Morse Creek Overlook.
After that point we started encountering lots of snow along the way; reminding me of Snow and Waterfalls on The Road to Paradise in Mt Rainier National Park the weekend before. We were getting excited as my friend has always wanted to see the view from the top of the road and the visibility was looking excellent.
Of course, I jinxed it! I always do!! LOL. Here’s the spectacular view from the visitors center at the top that we were treated to for all our efforts.
OK… you’ve made it this far so you deserve the treat of seeing what it should have looked like!
Reminder: this is NOT my picture. I took it from this site which talks about getting a job at the visitor’s center. I can think of worst views for your lunch break.
Got down back to Port Angeles and bought a bunch of postcards at the visitors center. A short drive away was Elwha and and even shorter hike to see Madison Waterfall.
Headed onward and had lunch at Sully’s Drive-In Burgers in Forks, WA – the rainiest town in the lower 48 states. Yes, it is the setting for the Twilight novels/movies, too.
Thankfully, the sun was out today so I wasn’t too worried about all the damn vampires. Where should you visit on a sunny day? A rainforest, of course! We were greeted by more deer when we arrived at the Hoh Rainforest visitor center.
We hiked the Spruce Nature Trail which was a first time for my friend who has explored the other trails previously.
Here is another one of those WEIRD twisted trees!!
That place was crazy beautiful. The mossy Pacific NW you expect when heading out that way.
Back on the road we saw a sign for something like “tallest tree” and we went on an unplanned side diversion to see the Duncan Cedar. Very impressive indeed. Mother Nature is a beautiful woman.
Speaking of iconic Pacific NW views, Ruby Beach.
Guess what? There was ANOTHER “tallest tree” sign, so off the road we go! This time the 1000 year old Kalaloch Big Cedar Tree.
It was time to turn inland and head to Lake Quinault to call it a night.
We got off the main road on the north side of the lake and we figured out a few minutes into the turn that it would be faster to just run around. My friend really wanted to drive around the lake. The little blue dot above shows where we could finally cross the river feeding into the lake. The cool news is that before we got to the bridge we FINALLY got to see some elk.
Even better was the tiny, but super cool looking, bonus falls we saw just as we crossed the bridge.
The bonuses continued as we got to see the 60 foot tall Bunch Falls.
A 3rd waterfall bonus; the 40 foot Merriman Falls!!
We finally made it to the Lake Quinault Lodge and grab some dinner at the fabulous restaurant
Sunday…
This place looks even better in the daylight!
Guess what is only a couple hundred yards away from the lodge? Yes, we made it a TRIFECTA of tallest trees. I present you the Big Spruce!
We drove down to Ocean Shores where we had breakfast.
And, of course, I had to see the ocean again and found a very flat and wide beach.
It was getting time to start heading back to the big city so we started heading back up the peninsula. Pit stop in Hoodsport for some ice cream as well as a local distillery.
Stopped again a bit further north and thought I’d take a quick picture of our trusty steed – an awesome Honda Element.
This stop had a sweet creek…
…that led to the 229 foot tall Rocky Brook Falls.
We got an update that the ferry we were going to take back was running three hours late and had no idea if the schedule would slip even further, so we changed plans to return back to Port Townsend for a guaranteed reservation on the same ferry we came out on two nights before. We were able to have dinner there as well as drive around Fort Worden Historic State Park (which was packed with deer everywhere it seemed) and see Point Wilson Lighthouse. You can even rent it out like an AirBNB.
Caught this little beauty on the way back down to the ferry.
This weekend was an incredible road trip with a super friend. I could not have had a better time!
A great friend of mine who lives up in Camano Island north of Seattle took me out to explore Mount Rainier NP. We wanted to see some Waterfalls, but knew the snow was probably going to prevent this. Fortunately, we did sneak in a few of the waterfalls of Mt. Raininer and saw a LOT of beautiful snow all the way up the mountain.
We stopped to see Carter’s Falls, but realized that without some snow shoes we would never make it down to the base. We did get to start taking some pictures of the beauty all around.
On the left we saw the upper portions of Christine Falls.
The majority of the waterfall is below the bridge and was not accessible, but there is a great view of the bridge itself from the parking area on the side of the road.
Continuing on, it was just plain beautiful from the car!
Even better out of the car with more incredible views – love those trees!
Stopped at the barren parking lot for Narada Falls, but the trail down to the bottom was not accessible with all this beautiful snow.
You can stand very close to the top of the falls and peer down the 176 foot drop. More great views from that vantage point, too.
Eventually, we made it as far as you could go during this time of the year – to Paradise!
On a very clear day you can see to the top of the mountain like this picture, but on this trip these are the best pictures I could take. Look closely and you can see the peak!
Turning around 180 degrees and facing south offered this INCREDIBLE view!!!
Heading back down offered more scenic views.
They include seeing the Nisqually Glacier while driving over the Nisqually River.
Continuing on back down the way we came in, we stopped at Longmire for some souvenir shopping.
And yes… for a few moments I almost got a clear picture of the summit!
It was a trip seeing all the history that has happened since this tree started growing way back in 1293.
Then it was time to take in a small hike along the Trail of the Shadows. Of course, it started snowing as soon as we got started.
Great time for a selfie!
Some of the trail was sheltered from the snow by the tall trees.
Not too far in was a couple of downed trees and a chance to just cut bait and turn around.
I’m glad we pushed on and saw some other nice sights along the way.
This included the mysterious twisted trees. Several different thoughts on why this happens, but seems there isn’t consensus. Either way, they look pretty darn cool. Speaking of “cool”, it was getting pretty cold with the wind blowing the snow at a 45 degree angle.
The views just kept coming on the trail loop.
Oh yeah… the snow kept stepping up and up. Thankfully, we made it back to the parking lot before becoming frozen statues!
On the way back out of the park, we treated to an unnamed little waterfall as a special bonus.
Speaking of Waterfalls, I look forward to returning to Mount Rainier one summer to take in all the beautiful waterfalls here in this majestic National Park.
As a extreme fan of Waterfalls living in the Atlanta metro area (I’m OTP if you have to know; hehe), I often get asked for recommendations for going to visit the waterfalls nearby. Here are my Top 3 “go to” falls that everyone in Atlanta needs to visit.
There are the right mix of easy to get to, easy to hike to, and… frankly some of the most beautiful waterfalls most people will ever see. If you have missed any of these, you now have a great day trip to take yourself, a date, or even the whole family on.
Here’s a visualization of where these are in relation to each other.
Now get going & Happy Waterfalling!