This morning we woke up to rain again. It rained until around 1pm. We expected it and had decided we'd go to Sol Duc Hot Springs in the park. We also decided we'd go back to the Crescent Lake Lodge for breakfast on the way. The 2 lodges we've stopped at had the best breakfasts, and the view is beautiful, too. No trouble this time getting into the park. Lots of road work is scheduled for 9/11 to 15 so we planned this trip for the right week!
After breakfast we headed for Sol Duc Hot Springs. Olympic National Park is amazing. It's like a bunch of parks in one. We've seen rain forests, big trees, beaches, the ocean, lakes, mountains, rivers, falls, and hot springs.
As we walked up to the Sol Duc Lodge, we could smell the hot springs. They have them flowing through a bunch of pools and hot tubs in the back. We learned about a fairly short hike to some falls and decided to go there. It was a beautiful drive and hike. Randy loaned me his fishing hat since my rain jacket doesn't have a hood.
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| View from breakfast - Crescent Lake Lodge |
Took a few shops from inside the lodge. Pretty place.
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| Sol Duc Hot Springs |
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| Solo selfie |
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| Dual selfie. |
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| Starting the hike to the falls. Look at how this tree is growing from a tree. |
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| Layers and layers of green. |
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| Yes, he's a hunk. |
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| He doesn't like getting his picture taken but he lets me because he wants to make me happy. :) |
Some of the Sol Duc River:
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Me: Haha! Call me Mrs. Indiana Jones.
Randy: Yeah, you almost look like you know what you're doing. |
This tiny brook sounded like a nice fountain:
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| There were several nice wooden bridges. |
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| The most colorful fungus yet! |
The falls:
About halfway back to the car, I suddenly realized I did not have my wallet. The whole trip, when we go for a walk, I leave my purse in the car but put my wallet and phone in my pockets. Today, since I was wearing my jacket I would put my wallet in the jacket pocket. It's a little bigger than my jeans pocket. But it was gone!
After we looked at each other a moment (and I said, "Shit!"), Randy handed me the car keys and walked back to the falls to look, while I went back to the car. When I got there, the wallet was on the seat -- I must've been putting it into the pocket and missed, but I didn't realize it. There was no service for the cell phone so even though I tried, I couldn't text Randy that I'd found it. All's well that ends well, but Randy's a real hero for doing all that walking!!
