Wednesday was forecast to be a day without rain so it is our exploring day. Our plan was to drive north to the Quinault Rain Forest. It is not really part of the Olympic National Park but just outside the border. I had done some research and the South Shore Road had the most waterfalls listed so that is the way we went.
Our first stop encompassed both a big tree and a waterfall. The tree was a Douglas Fir that was in the rainforest. The path was among a bunch of palms and trees. It was also wet.
The first waterfall was suppose to be only .6 miles but the return trip was uphill. That wore me out a bit. This is Willaby Creek Falls.
We drove another mile or so down the road and located the parking for the World's Largest Spruce Tree and parked. We walked the .3 miles to this tree.
This tree is about 1000 years old, is 191 feet tall and has a circumference of 58 feet 11 inches!
We tried to find the end of the trailhead for the waterfall that was suppose to be here but couldn't so we drove back to the other end. This waterfall really wasn't worth the hike. Most of the waterfall couldn't be seen because of the trees and stuff. Here is the top part of Gatton Creek Falls. There were a couple more tiers that I couldn't get pictures of.
It was pretty cold so we thought we would get a cup of hot chocolate or something in the general store but they didn't have any. Across from the store was Lake Quinault.
On to our next waterfall. It was right next to the road so that was nice. No up and down hills. Here is Merriman Falls.
The last waterfall required a drive on a gravel road. There were a lot of potholes where the trees dripped down. The rain over the last couple of days certainly didn't help. Here is Bunch Creek Falls -
There was a connecting road to the North Shore road so that was the way we returned. The trees had a bunch of moss growing and hanging down. This would be an interesting place to hold a haunted house. Oh, just up the road a bit is the town of Forks, which is where they filmed the Twilights movies so I guess these woods were used for stuff like that.
We did stop at the parking area for another big tree but when we started up the trail we ran into a bunch of stairs. They went on for a lot more than I am able to climb. In fact, one of the steps was very steep and when I went to step up my knee gave out and twisted my leg in a weird way. Back to the car we went. Back at the rig we both took a much needed nap.
Here are all the pictures.
Thursday morning we were scheduled to leave the campground. Most of the other folks here are also leaving. Since we only have about 125 miles to go and we can't check in before 2:00 PM (they are picky about that) we decided to hang around until noon to leave here. I asked at the office and they said no problem. The Navy (where we are staying) is easier to work with than the Coast Guard (where we are going)!
We decided to help pass the time we would go have breakfast in the restaurant. It was pretty good. We both had omelets. Breakfast took up about an hour. We did have to stop at the dump station on our way out to clean our tanks. The black tank indicator is acting up so we decided to put a lot of water in the black tank and add a bag of ice. We drove to our next stop and hopefully the ice sloshing around in it will clean the indicators.
We are staying in the town of Warrenton, OR at a Coast Guard training facility. This isn't a real campground but is 10 sites in a concrete lot. We do have full hookups so I can do laundry and run everything I want. We are using this as a base to explore from. My sister is suppose to come visit on Sat, also.
That is all for now.
2 comments:
Where are all the pictures? They did not show up!
Where it says "here are all the pictures", all that shows up on my computer is a big blank space.
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