Woke up in Hoodsport pretty early, as we got to bed early last evening. The RV Park, Glen Ayr, was pretty nice. Had full hookups and decent WIFI. Its located right on the Hood Canal, and has access to a marina. After a nice breakfast, we departed for Quinault, WA via the Olympic National Park. This trip allows us to visit three National Parks that weve not before seen: Mt. Ranier NP, Olympic NP, and Crater Lake NP. We passed Lewis and Clark NP, but didnt stop.
As we headed north on US101, we intended to make stops at the Light House in Dungeness, WA, as well as stops within the National Park. We soon discovered that the signage to these places was very poor, or not existent at all. We could find no signs to Hurricane Ridge. We then wanted to enter the park at Elwha, and blew by that sign due to no advance warning. The roads up here are very narrow and winding, with little to no opportunity to turn around a RV. We did manage to get off the road to view the Marymere falls. After making an excursion around a very small parking
facility, we could find no place to park an RV, so we had to leave there without seeing the falls. Next stop was at Crescent Lake, near Fairholm, WA. This was a most beautiful glacial lake, with turquoise blue water. At one time, an avalanche cut the lake in two, cutting off access from the Ocean, thereby preventing salmon runs to the lake. There were very few homes on this lake, and were not quite sure why that is, as its so beautiful.
Leaving Crescent lake, we then entered the National Park at the Sol Duc Hot Springs. After a jaunt in, along a narrow, winding road, we arrived at the Lodge. Upon entering, we asked where we could view the Hot springs. The gentleman told us to just go down the hall, and turn left, and wed be there. After doing so, we entered an area that cemented over, with 3 small circular pools, about 2 feet deep, and a larger pool nearby. The three small pools were feed with hot, Sulphur water. Ray said, Let me see if I got this straight. We drove 20 minutes up a bad road to see three wading
After leaving the Hot Springs, we intended to visit the Hoh Rain Forest. Arriving at the turn out, we decided to bag it, and proceed to our destination at Quinault, WA, as we were all pretty tired. We arrived at the Rain Forest Resort and RV park around 3:30pm. After hooking up the rigs, we walked to the office to get the WIFI password. We were told that we couldnt receive WIFI at the RV sites, and had up to the office area to get it. Hence, no blog last night. Ray got up early this morning and walked up to finish yesterdays blog, and get it out on email.
The park is located on the very lovely Quinault Lake, and is nestled in amongst some huge trees. In fact, in this immediate area are located 6 Champion conifer trees. These trees are recognized by the National Forestry Assoc. as the largest living specimens of their species. They only have the redwoods and sequoias to look up to. Right next to our RV stood the
largest Sitka Spruce in the world, at 557 in circumference, and 191 tall. These trees are truly awe inspiring.
Obviously, our next order of business was setting up for our evening cocktail hour (or two). Diane immediately joined the Sandy spilling wine club. Lots of laughs, as usual, before heading in to Chez Germans RV for a nice American Chop Suey dinner with all the fixings. (Green salad).
Hitting the sack around 9:00 pm, and plan on sleeping in tomorrow morning, as we have a short drive ahead.
Weve been to many of our countrys National Parks over the years, with each on etched in our memory as being incredible, but all being different from each other. Olympic National Park was a disappointment to us. Our impression was that this is a hikers park, as there is little to see of interest by auto. While the topography is stunning and the forests immense, you just cant access it unless your hiking in, which is out of the question for this group.
