Olympic National Park

Entrance to The Olympic National Park is less than a 30-minute drive from Sequim, and was a must-see, must-do event for us while we were there. We made several visits to the park for hikes, scenic drives, and a tour of the Visitors Center. Covering nearly a million acres, the park is home to a vast wilderness and multiple and diverse ecosystems, including glacier-capped mountains, old-growth temperate rain forests, and over 70-miles of wild coastline. I couldn’t ask for better hiking conditions – deep and canopied forests, every shade of green imaginable, oxygen rich air to breathe, pristine waterfalls and streams, and perfect temperatures. I could easily and happily have spent all summer exploring this park.

Our hikes included the Heart O’ the Forest Trail, Boulder Creek on the Elwha river, the Glines Canyon Spillway, Madison Creek Falls, Marymere Falls, and Sol Duc Falls. My good friend Barbara, who came to visit for a couple of days, joined us on the Heart O’ the Forest Trail hike, making it even more special. It had been many years since we last saw one another, and it was so much fun catching up and getting to know each other again.

To wrap up our stay in Sequim, Dan and I visited the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort and spent the afternoon enjoying the pools and taking in the beautiful scenery. The resort offers three mineral hot spring soaking pools and one freshwater pool. The spring water comes from rain and melting snow, which seeps through the cracks in the sedimentary rocks where it mingles with gasses coming from cooling volcanic rocks. The mineralized spring waters then rise to the surface along a larger fissure.

I found it hard to leave when our two weeks came to an end. This is truly one of my favorite parts of the country.