North Olympic NP Exploration - July 2024
Sol Duc, Lake Crescent, and Hurricane Ridge - July 14, 2024 Olympic National Park is very spread out with multiple areas in the northwest peninsula area of Washington. The interior of the park can only be reached by hiking. Olympic has the only rainforest in the lower 48 states. Hwy 101 almost goes all around the park. Though to get from Staircase to the Beaches (heading west along the south side of the park), we had to take another road, and it went pretty far south of the park. Travis found that Hwy 101 went through California and down to Mexico. We found two short hikes for each the Sol Duc and Lake Crescent areas. They were in the park newspaper. The Sol Duc area is also known for its moss. Again, we saw detour signs, saw others following them, started to follow them, and then changed our minds and turned around. We determined that it was past our first stop. The first hike was Sol Duc Falls (1.6 miles roundtrip) and then Ancient Groves (0.6 miles loop) on the Sol Duc road. Th