Monday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at 48 Degrees North next door to the hotel. On the way, we saw the sky light up fiery orange as the sun began to rise.
We arranged for a seat next to the window to watch the sunrise with a yummy breakfast. The Belgian waffle was delicious. After breakfast, we got our stuff together and made our way to Crescent Lake in Olympic National Park. Parking at the Storm King Ranger Station, we got on the Marymere Falls Trail and passed by Lake Crescent. It was beautiful in the early morning light.
The trail then passed under the highway.
As we entered the forest, some of the trees were really amazing.
In about 3/4 mile, we split from Barnes Creek Trail and crosses on a footbridge.
Right away, we crossed Falls Creek on another footbridge.
The trail got moderately steep here and made a split, we went left to the first overlook for Marymere Falls.
The water level was a little low, but the waterfall was still very scenic.
The trail continued to an upper overlook of the falls before looping back around.
Hiking back, we took the steep Storm King Trail and started making our way up the mountain. Almost constant switchbacks, it was just up and up. Near the top, we started seeing some nice views from the trail.
Where the official trail ended, a path continued to a point where we needed to used fixed ropes. There was a pile of used climbing gloves here, which was nice. We climbed the ropes up and came to an overlook with wonderful views.
At the overlook, we stopped and ate lunch. Some other people were feeding Canada jays up here, but we only took photos.
There was also a couple dark-eyed juncos up here.
The Canada jays flew around us while we ate, hoping in vain we would give them some food. It did make for some nice photo opportunities.
The panoramic view of Lake Crescent from up here was just phenomenal.
We spent some time up here then headed back down. Once back at the parking area, we took the short Moments in Time Trail through a forest at Barnes Point.
There were a couple spots to go out on the lake.
Looking up, we could see Mount Storm King, though the overlook was well below the summit.
The lake was really beautiful.
There were a lot of big ferns growing in the forest, much larger than the ones back home.
We finished the loop and returned to our car.
From here, we started driving back to Port Angeles and took Olympic Hot Springs Road to the end where it is closed. A short paved trail led to Madison Falls.
It was a pretty waterfall despite the poor lighting and low water.
Definitely worth a short hike and close to Port Angeles.
We hiked down to the boat yard and then turned around.
We got back right around sunset and climbed the tower, but it was not nearly as colorful as the night before.
Then we headed back to the hotel and started getting packed up.
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