Olympic Coast

Wednesday, we had breakfast at the In Place and then drove to La Push Road and parked at Third Beach Trailhead in Olympic National Park.  Third Beach Trail was just over a mile through the forest to the beach.

It was a little steep on the final descent and we had to climb over some beach logs.  There was some goldenrod flowering here.

Once we got over the logs, we made it to the beautiful Third Beach.

In the distance we could see the sea stacks.

It was such a beautiful beach and with cloudy weather, there was hardly anyone else here.

Heading down the beach, we could see Third Beach Falls in the distance.

The water level was low, but it was still a fantastic waterfall, dropping directly into the Pacific Ocean.  And it was my 1000th waterfall.

The tide was coming in, but we were still able to check out some of the tidepool life.

There were a few ochre sea stars, but a lot of colorful anemones.

Aggregating anemones were various shades of pink and green while the giant green anemones were green or yellow.

After enjoying the tidepools for a bit, we had to use ropes to climb up Taylor Point Trail.  Once up, the trail leveled off and there were some nice views from above.

The trail ran for about a mile then started to descend just as steeply.

We came out on an unnamed beach that was absolutely beautiful.  The tide wasn't too high yet, so we could walk around the rocky outcrop next to the surf.

There was a cool cave and we had lunch in here.

We continued on a little further down, but with the water rising, we couldn't go too far.

We enjoyed the views and starting making our way back.

Some fingered limpets were on the rocks here.

As we were walking back, a mule deer ran across the beach.

Back at Taylor Point Trail, the tide had come in and we couldn't go back around on the rocks.  This time, we had to climb up over the rocky outcrop with more fixed ropes.

Up at the top, was a fuzzy little caterpillar.

On the hike back, we stopped to peek out near the top of Third Beach Falls.  It was near high tide, so there wasn't much beach left.

Back on Third Beach, we had to scramble over a downed tree where there was no beach left, but made it back dry.

Once back at the car, we drove to Beaver Falls.  A short path led behind the guard rail and down to the creek at the falls.

The water level was low so water was only flowing down the river-right side, but I thought it was beautiful nonetheless.

After some pictures, we headed into town and got dinner at Blakeslees.

In the evening, we headed back to the coast for sunset.  We parked at Rialto Beach and made our way down to the sand.

The beach was really beautiful in the last light of the sun.

And lots of gorgeous sea stacks out in the water.

This beach had a lot of pebbles and small rocks.  As the waves crashed on the beach, the pebbles generated a beautiful sound as they rolled into each other.

After it got dark, we headed back to the hotel and started getting packed up.

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.