Olympic National Park

Now that summer is officially upon us, I thought it would be an ideal time to write about a favorite summer travel destination: Olympic National Park. Located in the northwest corner of Washington state, this National Park is a true gem!

It is a large and diverse area that covers a rain forest, beaches on the Pacific ocean, large mountains and beautiful lakes and rivers.  Our Olympic National Park adventure began in the Hoh Rain Forest. I’m sure you’re thinking, “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 mountain.

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.

Then we drove on Highway 101 headed back to the Pacific to enjoy the sunshine at Rialto Beach. The beach was rocky with tons of driftwood and sea stacks off the shore. It was wonderful feeling the sun on my face. We stayed for a while and had a picnic as well. When I was finally ready to give up the beach, we headed inland to Lake Crescent. I learned at a roadside placard that Lake Crescent is a glacial lake. It is 600+ feet deep and crystal clear. It was an absolutely gorgeous area and we kept pulling over to enjoy the views.

The 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.

If you’d like to know more about Olympic National Park – or book a trip to experience it for yourself – please give us a call at 317-885-9788 or fill out one of our handy online web forms.