Sol Duc

Tuesday morning, we checked out and headed west from Port Angeles.  We turned on Sol Duc Hot Springs Road and drove back into Olympic National Park.  We first stopped at Salmon Cascades.

A small waterfall, its most notable as a spot to see spawning salmon.

We did see some of the salmon in the pool below the falls, but didn't see them attempt to jump.

We scrambled around on the rocks for a bit to see if the salmon would move.  When they didn't we continued on.

Next we parked at the end of the road at the Sol Duc Falls trailhead.  It was about 3/4 mile to a footbridge at Sol Duc Falls, perhaps the most iconic waterfall in the park.

With low water, the stream split into two main flows and a third smaller one as the river dropped at a 90 degree angle.

Across the bridge, we could view the waterfall from different angles.

A few logs had fallen into the narrow canyon, but didn't take away much from the view.

After some pictures, we continued on and could see the shelter across the river.

We soon came to a split and first went right on Lover's Lane Trail.  Where the trail crossed Canyon Creek, we took a path upstream to Upper Lover's Lane Falls.

It was small but scenic.

Immediately downstream of the bridge was the much larger Lover's Lane Falls, but I was unable to find any reasonable way to get a good view.

From here, we backtracked to the split and got on Deer Park Trail to follow Canyon Creek upstream.  In about a mile, the trail crossed the creek on a footbridge.

Lower Canyon Creek Falls was just below the bridge but no way to get down to the base.

The trail continued up; it was moderately steep but not too bad.  In about 2 miles, we got off the trail to see Middle Canyon Creek Falls.

This was a real nice waterfall and it looked like it continued down but would have been very difficult to get down.

Right before reaching Deer Lake, there was Upper Canyon Creek Falls.  I suspect there are even more waterfalls on this creek, but would be very difficult to reach.

The upper falls was a narrow chute, but a log had fallen on it making it very hard to view.

Just past here, we made it to Deer Lake and stopped for lunch.

There was a green comma butterfly next to the water.

We followed the trail to make a short loop around the lake.

There was actually a second smaller lake to the west of the main Deer Lake.

After finishing up the short loop, we hiked back down to the trailhead.

From here, we drove to Forks and stopped for pizza at Home Slice Take and Bake and checked into the Pacific Inn for a few days.