Olympic National Park is located in the northwest corner of Washington state. It is a large and diverse area that covers a rain forest, beaches on the Pacific ocean, large mountains and beautiful lakes and rivers. We were fortunate enough to spend time in proximity to each of these features. Our Olympic National Park adventure began in the Hoh Rain Forest. A rain forest in the Pacific Northwest? I thought the same thing. But it’s true. This area of the National Park is very warm, and they get an average of about twelve feet (feet!!) of rain every year. There are several streams and rivers like the one pictured above that run clear with rain water runoff from nearby mountains.

There are some areas of the rain forest that look pretty normal, much denser vegetation that you would see in elsewhere, but nothing that makes you think that you’re in a rain forest. And then we went for a hike along the “Hall of Mosses” trail and saw scenes like the one above. There are ferns growing out of the side of trees. Almost every square inch of every tree in sight is covered in a moss or fern. Everything is very green. Intensely green.

Along the western edge of Olympic National Park are a series of rocky beaches. We took the time to explore two of them: Ruby Beach and Rialto Beach. The photograph above captures Rialto beach prety well. Rocky shoreline and rocky beach with lots and lots of driftwood. Tons of driftwood. Boo for logging, yeah for driftwood. You won’t see anyone swimming or surfing here, it’s too cold and the driftwood hazard along with strong currents make it too dangerous.

And last, but certainly not least, is Lake Crescent. A large glacial lake that is crystal clear at the edges and then various shades of blue and blue grey in the center depending on the light. Very cold water, and pretty incredible shades of blue. This whole lake was carved out by a glacier millions of years ago and now it gets its water from nearby glaciers in the park.

Each one of these aspects would make for their own interesting National Park, and I haven’t even talked about the wildlife - there is a huge herd of Roosevelt elk that lives within the park - but when you combine all of these things into one National Park you get quite a visit. I was really impressed with the variety of the scenery and vegetation throughout our trip through the park. I plan to come back to Olympic National Park and do some hiking of the large mountains, that’s the only thing that we missed out on during our stay.