Lindsay and I spent our honeymoon in 2014 exploring the Olympic Peninsula, and I’ve wanted to go back ever since. While we are grateful for how much we did and saw when we were there seven years ago, when we planned our trip this summer we wanted to limit our driving and maximize our time enjoying an area for a few days at a time.
Lake Crescent, Sol Duc, Rialto Beach, Hoh Rainforest
We arrive in the Lake Crescent area of Olympic National Park on what is expected to be the hottest weekend on record in the Pacific Northwest. We spend the afternoon at a day use area on the north shore of Lake Crescent before checking into our camp spot at the Sol Duc Rainforest Retreat just a few miles up 101 from Lake Crescent. Lake Crescent is gorgeous - glacier carved, deep, surrounded by rugged mountains on all sides. The water is stunningly clear and refreshing.
On Sunday morning we head into the Sol Duc area. We take a short walk on the Ancient Groves Trail. The trail is about a half a mile and loops through a lush old growth forest and along the Sol Duc River.
Next, we hike the short trail to Sol Duc Falls. It feels like summer camp on this trail - we probably pass hundreds of hikers seeking to escape the heat (although our car in the parking lot said it was 105 degrees). When we arrive at the falls, it’s thankfully much cooler and I enjoy a light misting from the falls.
The next day, we spend the morning enjoying the private beach area near our campsite at the Fairholme Campground on Lake Crescent. The water is perfect.
In the afternoon, we drive to Rialto Beach where the temperature has dropped from a hellish 105 on highway 101 to a lovely, almost shocking, 75 at the beach. Rialto is so rugged. Massive drift logs are piled in heaps. A moody marine layer lingers over the sea stacks at the mouth of the Quillayute River. Surfers delight in the massive waves. Fishermen at the shore wait patiently for a catch. I breathe in the thick salty air.
Inadvertent shot of a fisherman
Before we head back to Lake Crescent, we manage to snag the last two bags of ice anywhere near Forks. Phew! Back at Lake Crescent, we enjoy a stunning sunset near the boat launch after a late dinner.
The next morning, we drive to the Hoh Rainforest, one of the largest temperate rainforests in the US. The area receives over 140 inches of precipitation each year! Even during a drought, the forest is lush and green and moss covers nearly every inch of every tree. We walk the Hall of Mosses Trail and the Spruce Nature Trail. What I find most stunning here are the enormous ancient maple trees.
Staircase Area and Lake Cushman
We snag a great campsite at the Staircase Campground in the southeastern part of the park before the holiday weekend. The campground is lush, wooded, and has massive old cedar stumps with new trees growing out of them (Luca exclaims “they are nurse logs!”).
We do the short Staircase Loop hike. The trail meanders along the North Fork of the Skokomish River. We walk through an ancient forest with some huge trees. One cedar tree had fallen and a sign says it’s diameter is 14 feet!
On our last day we do a short hike on the southern shore of Lake Cushman, part of the Dry Creek Trail. The trail begins on a firelane in a second growth forest of mainly Douglas Firs.
Before long, Lindsay notices that there are massive moss covered cedar stumps, many with notches cut into them, everywhere. On our short 2.5 mile hike we see dozens, if not 100, old cedar stumps. While I am no tree expert, I estimate they must have been felled at least 100 years ago (some stumps had fairly large Douglas Firs growing out of them) and the trees (stumps at this point) are ancient. They are magical beings. Relics of a different time.
As I walk the trail along the lake, I can’t help but feel sadness. I wonder what it’d be like if these gorgeous ancient trees were still here. Later, after we get home, I find these stumps still on my mind so I do some quick googling. I find a page from the National Park Service on timber exploitation and early Olympic Peninsula logging.
“After Lieutenant Joseph O’Neil led scouting parties across much of the southern section of the Olympic range in 1890, he reported to the U.S. Congress: ‘There is a great wealth in this district, and that is its timber. It seems to be inexhaustible.’
O’Neil continued, ‘I could not quite agree as to the elk, but I have measured many trees over 40 feet in circumference, and some over 50 feet’ (U.S. Congress 1896). O’Neil expedition team member and botanist Louis F. Henderson was, likewise, impressed by the size of the trees encountered in the Olympics, noting that the ‘western arbor-vitae, called commonly ‘cedar’ . . . about Lake Cushman, together with the Douglas spruce, are of gigantic proportions, rivaling the famed redwoods of the Californian forests.’ “”
Rivaling the famed redwoods. Inexhaustible. No ancient cedars exist in this location anymore. They were not inexhaustible. They’re gone.
Olympic National Park is a treasure, and I’m so grateful we spent a week here. Luca lived his best life and is a true lover of the outdoors. The wonder, the joy, the curiosity. If only every adult approached nature with the same sense of awe, our planet would be in much better shape. I hope we can continue to foster a love of - and commitment to protect - the natural world and a deep respect for all living things in Luca as he grows older.
Finally, I want to honor and recognize that the Olympic Peninsula is the ancestral land of the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S'Klallam, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Skokomish, Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah tribes.
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”