Olympic National Park is one of the most popular national parks in the Northwest part of United States due to how close it is to large metropolitan areas such as Vancouver and Seattle. Olympic National Park offers variety of scenarios such as high mountain view, waterfalls, lakes and rain forest. During this Independence Day long weekend, we decided to visit this popular place.
We left Portland around 6AM in the morning and it would take us around 5.5 hours to get to Hurricane Ridge. The weather was a bit gloomy, but it did not rain luckily. As we get to the ranger station to drive up to Hurricane Ridge, we were stuck in the traffic paying for the entrance fee. The fee is $30 per vehicle and discount is offered to seniors and military personals. Along the way, we also saw few bikers and we were amazed on how fit they are.
After 17 miles of drive in the mountain, we finally got up to Hurricane Ridge. The view on the Olympic Mountain on the far side was quite stunning. We could see the glacier and the cloud surround the peaks.
We then decided to do the easy hike on Sunrise Point Trail. It was a very easy trail with almost no elevation gain. Along the way, we also saw few deers wondering around enjoying the grass.
After the hike, we then headed back to Port Angeles and checked in to Days Inn. We had some rest before heading to the harbor to watch the firework show.
On the second day, we left early to do the Sol Duc Falls Trail. We passed by Lake Crescent along the way but it did not look spectacular at all, so we did not stop by. Afterwards, we drove to Hoh Rain Forest to check out the hairy trees. On the way back to Port Angeles, we also went to La Push Beach to check out one of the main settings in Twilight Saga. Thankfully did not encounter any vampire.
In general, we were not really impressed with what Olympic National Park offered compared to the scenery in Oregon. The mountain and the lake were not very impressive. In addition, one very annoying thing is that every time we want to visit a place at Olympic National Park, we had to drive so far from ranger station to the actual tourist attraction. We were so tired of driving by the time we get there.
EmoticonEmoticon