Celebrating 10 Years in Seattle!

We caught our flight out of Vegas at 7am and arrived in Seattle at 10am. We were starving when we arrived but noticed that if we hurried, we'd catch the Bainbridge Island Ferry, saving us at least an hour of daylight. Once we were safely on the Ferry, we went to the upper floor, bought ourselves some Pike's clam chowder, a muffin, and some cocoa, and watched the foggy islands sail by.

Once we were safely across, we drove another hour to Port Angeles and decided we were still hungry; our breakfast of chowder had worn off. We stopped at a highly rated place, Gastropub, and had a tasty burger; I had the Ms. Newton with fig spread and Kyle had the regualr burger. We hit the road again and it took another hour to reach the Crescent Lake Lodge.

Nearing Lake Crescent on our drive

We took the turnoff for Lake Crescent Lodge and the forest we drove though was different and beautiful! I had to hop out of the car once twice a few times to snap pictures.

We got to the lodge at about 2pm. The grounds and lodge were really pretty and rustic. We tried to check in but the man at the desk said we were two hours early for check in so we'd have to come back.

I asked him about hikes in the area, one in specific, the Mount Storm King Trail. He shook his head and told is it was too late in the day to start that hike - that at least a half day was needed to hike that one, but he recommended some nice paths around the Lodge. So, naturally, we set off for the Mount Storm King Trail.

It was a much more difficult hike than I imagined. A 1.9 distance seems quite short in my running mind, but a 1.9 steep uphill climb turned out much different. Kyle was fine on the ascent but I had to stop every few minutes to let the burning in my calves cool down and it was a good time to take pictures of the ferny forest.

The terrain changed as we got higher, from green forested switchbacks to scrambly gravel. The back side of the hike afforded us views of the Olympic range.

Once the trail steepened even more, ropes were tied to trees here and there to help us keep traction on the steep hills and pull ourselves up. It was steep buggar, and a whole body experience for sure! The first view of Lake Crescent was pretty amazing but we weren't yet to the top.

I knew the view would get better. We continued with the ropes and soon reached an insanely scary point only about 100 feet from the end; a rocky ridge with sheer drop offs on both sides. One side dropped off to the forest trees surrounding Lake Crescent. I could see the tops of the huge spruce trees below me. The other side dropped off to the jagged Olympic granite. I'd have to walk balance my way across the ridge. I cheerfully declared, "This is far enough! I came, I saw, I did!" Kyle made fun of me for a minute and then said, "Watch! Just use your hands and crawl across!" He started across and I said no. He kept encouraging me and I finally took a few test steps. The rocks seemed securely fastened to the mountain so I kept going, but not looking off the edges. After crawling the last 50 feet on my hands and knees, We were to the outcrop which was a bit wider and felt safer. I stood up and the sight we were rewarded with was worth the scare!


After we took pictures, we crawled back across the ridge noticed that the sun was beginning to set so after carefully crossing the ropes, we turned the downhill into a trail run.

The descent was harder on Kyle, his knees were unhappy. We made it down pretty quick though. The four mile hike took us 2 hours; 1.5 hours up and 30 minutes down. We reached the lodge just as it was getting too dark to see well and found some deer welcoming us back.

We checked in and headed to our room. It was lodge-like, no frills, but we were there for the location and not the room. If we could do it again we'd probably have driven all the way to Forks that night to be closer to our next day's destination. There wasn't much in the way of food at the lodge either, just an expensive, mediocre restaurant. We ordered "takeout" food and ate it in the lobby; me clam chowder and Kyle fish and chips. Both were not great but did the job. We returned to the room and watched the first episode of Walking Dead on Netflix.

We were strangely both up and ready to go at about 5:30 am (time change + zone change). Our legs were a bit sore from the previous day's hike.   We had scheduled to hike Sol Duc Falls first thing that morning but since it wouldn't be light for a few hours we decided to use the dark time to drive the long distance to Hoh Rainforest and then hit Sol Duc later on the way back to Seattle. The sunrise view leaving Lake Crescent was so serene. It was quiet and still and so peaceful.

We drove an hour to Forks and had breakfast at the Forks Coffee Shop; both of us bacon, eggs, and pancakes. It was an odd hillbilly place with ripped vinyl seats, dusty fake flowers, and moths in the lights. Old guys in their sweatpants B.S.ed about fishing on one side of us and on the other side a whole group of loggers passing through Forks. Forks, I learned, is the logging capital of the WORLD. Cool.  The food was a lot like Denny's, salty and perfect for a day of upcoming hiking. We continued toward Hoh and another 45 minutes later were entering the area. I made Kyle stop a bunch of times to take pictures along side the road; the mossy rainforest started long before we reached the park and it was absolutely beautiful!

We paid the $20 entrance fee and parked. (If I'm being honest the forest coming into Hoh was just as beautiful). We were one of three cars there and I wasn't really surprised. It was a remote place to be; several hours from anything major, off-season, and it was a damp, *cold* morning.

Even the pay booth and visitors center were closed. Did I mention it was cold and damp? Its amazing how 45 degrees in dry weather is mild but 45 degrees in a humid rainforest just seeps into your body. It's strange to me that a rainforest could even be cold in the first place. I have always associated rainforests with hot jungles. Anyway... we hiked and trail ran along the Hoh River Trail for 3.5 miles and then turned around and ran back. The scenery was breathtaking the whole way.

There were huge deciduous trees losing their fall colored leaves and with moss hanging from them. There were gigantic sitka spruce, fir, bigleaf maple, and hemlock, all of them covered with moss from base to top. The forest floor was completely covered with all types of ferns, small leafed shrubs, and mushrooms.

A PADDED forest toilet! Jocelyn would have been so happy :) 

There were no grasses or flowers and no sunlight. Everything, even the shadows, were pure green. We passed several waterfalls along the way and came up alongside a turquoise river in a rocky gray riverbed that looked straight from Alaska.

 Kyle commented how he expected to see a bear fishing or a moose on the bank. We only saw one other person the whole time - a photographer near the river.

On our way back we did see one very old lady, about a half mile up from the parking lot. I had to get a picture of her after we had passed her because the effort she was putting into making her way up the trail was inspiring. She was walking with a crutch under one arm and a cane in her other hand and she was moving along at a snails pace. But she was out there enjoying nature right along with us and she had a smile on her face. Go slowly but Go!

When we finished our hike/trail run we headed back toward Forks for some food, stopping once for a picture of a pair of bald eagles fishing.

Standing on the sandbar is the tiny outline of a bald eagle

Coordinating food stops seemed to be the hardest part of traveling this remote area and were quite hungry by the time we got there even though we'd snacked our way through most of our snack stash. Other than the Forks diner dives, the grocery store was our only option so we stopped there to see if they had a deli. We both grabbed a deli sandwich and ate in the parking lot.

We then traveled another 30 minutes back up the highway and then cut west toward the coast and the beaches. With the day wearing on we decided we could chose Rialto Beach or LaPush Beach but not both (they are separated by a wide bay and would require a lot of drive time tracking back around it to visit both). We chose LaPush because it was on the Quilete Reservation (Wolf Territory, Twilight). We got there and it was pretty darn windy and cold, the sun was behind clouds. We spent only about 20 minutes at the beach, gathering some neat driftwood, looking at washed up dead sealife, and taking pictures. We hopped back in the car and drove through the reservation (very dumpy and reservation like) back toward the main highway. The sun was getting lower, we were tired from our earlier hike, and we had a long drive time ahead of us to be back in Seattle by 7pm, the time we had told our Airbnb host we'd arrive. Sol Duc Falls was looking like it might be out of the picture which I was feeling pretty bad about considering that it had topped my list after recognizing it from an old poster my Mom had hanging in her room years ago.

We covered the distance from LaPush to quickly and were in the area of Sol Duc when we (I) decided to just go for it. I messaged our host and told her it'd be more like 8pm and we turned off the highway again toward Sol Duc. Thirteen miles off the highway we leapt out of the car and shot off through the forest, running to get there quickly.

We weren't running fast enough to miss that the forest was absolutely, crazy beautiful. I'd thought that I'd have seen enough green forest in Hoh earlier in the day to dull the thrill of seeing Sol Duc but it turned out not to be the case. Sol Duc was Amazing with a capital A and I was every bit as enthralled with it as with Hoh.

It was a quick, flat, 1 mile each way to the falls. The falls turned out the be MUCH bigger and carrying much more water than I'd judged from pictures. Only one other person was there, another photographer. We caught the falls during that early-evening-warm-colored-sunlight part of day and the green colors were almost fluorescent. The mist from the falls made it that much more surreal.

I was so glad we made the stop, it was totally worth the delay! I commented to Kyle as we drove out of the Sol Duc area that if I was recommending this trip to someone who didn't have a lot of time or who didn't especially care to hike a long distance, that only driving as far as Sol Duc and hiking to the falls would get them plenty of rainforest for their money. Hoh was still nice and I'm glad we saw it because we got to do the hiking and trail-running I wanted, but you could see just as much and as beautiful of rainforest closer to Seattle/Crescent Lake.

We got back on the highway, drove for what felt like forever, passed Crescent Lake and Port Angeles, and then hopped the ferry toward Seattle, a view of the city skyline at night.

We arrived at our Airbnb at 8pm sharp, unloaded our crap, and then walked into town for a late dinner at Jamjuree, a Thai place. It was good and typical Thai, not greasy or saucy, and full of lots of fresh ingredients.

The next day we had planned on either driving to Mt. Rainier or just staying in Seattle. The weather cams showed a snowy Rainier and we both had very sore legs and were tired of driving so Seattle won the vote. Pike Market was our first must see. We'd heard from multiple places that you needed to hit Pike Market as early as possible in the morning, 6 am even, so we went there first. We walked downtown from our place, about a mile downhill. We arrived at 7:30am and nothing was even open yet! The fish were out for sale and the flower vendors were just setting up but all of the shops were still closed. We waited around for awhile and stopped to eat a crumpet breakfast at Tea and Crumpets. They were tasty but not nearly filling enough. Pike's still seemed to be asleep so we bagged it and headed back UP the hill into the shopping district and then spent the rest of the day shopping. My head was hurting a bit from lack of food and being off my normal healthy diet. We hit Starbucks at least twice and ate at a salad kiosk called Toss'd for lunch. Kyle even approved of their salads (after I made him order one). I started feeling better after the salad and we shopped until dinnertime. We walked back to  our place and showered, got prettied up, and went to our anniversary dinner at Vio's, a greek restaurant. It was better than average but not great. The portions were pretty small and the lamb kebabs were a little big tough and cold but the chicken kebabs were good. I like my Mad Pita best :)  We tried driving downtown to look for a Seahawks shirt for Millie but there was LITerally nowhere to park. We drove around the blocks for a half hour hoping for something to open up but nothing did. Kyle dropped me off at the tshirt shop while he circled around to wait for me. The shop ended up being closed anyway. We went back to our place and called it a night.

Our flight left early the next morning. We had a great time but we missed our little girls and were grateful to be going back home to see them!