Olympic National Park and the Olympic Peninsula are many parks in one - amazing meadows full of wildflowers, mountain vistas, a rain forest, and a marine wilderness with a 5 mile split to an historic lighthouse. Oh, and did I mention it had local fresh caught salmon.
Although we only had five days there, we did our best to cover as much of the area that we could - starting with the mountain vistas and wild flowers.
The views of Mount Olympus, the blue and white wild foxglove, the magenta painted brush, and purple fireweed flowers, created a continual backdrop of color. Even though it was the end of July, we had parts of our paths blocked with snow. We saw the Olympus marmot sunning on rocks. The Olympus marmot is unique - with a silvery coat rather than the tones of brown.
Entering the rain forest, we were surrounded with ferns, moss, massive Douglas firs and Sitka spruce. We learned about nurse logs - trees that have died, now on the ground, that nurses new trees and forest greens. Trees grow on top, and the roots lie on either side of the log, until the log finally disappates.
And heading along the shore, we were treated to an ocean delight with our walk to, 'serenity', the lighthouse at the end of the spit. Truly a sky to sea experience. There we encountered the cairn logs - Ron added his own cairn to the log.
Covering the heights of Mt. Olympus (7980 feet) to the sea level of the Pacific Ocean, the diversity of environments made each day feel like we were at a new place.
those shots are so lovely. Karen looks super and the flower shot would make a beautiful wall hanging. Love Helen x
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