Olympic Peninsula

Day 2: After a not so pleasant night due to Peter's constant coughing, it was tough to get up early again for a tour on the Olympic Peninsula - west of Seattle. The tour company, Evergreen Escapes Cascadia, not only provided a very comfortable bus, but also brought breakfast, lunch and drinks, as well as gear for a snowshoeing tour. Our guide, Marty, was an expert in nature and outdoors, flora and fauna, and we got a lot of background information about the strong timber industry in this region. By ferry, clouds hanging deep down, we crossed over from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. Seattle has the largest and busiest ferry system in the U.S.A. - and on to Sequim (pic above). This tribal village is the center of the Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Reservation, with totem poles, houses in the traditional style and a great store with native artwork of all kinds. Here, as well as in Seattle, shrubs e.g. azaleas, but also daffodils and other flowers have already started to bloom.

Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Hood Canal and on the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula's main attraction are the majestic Olympic Mountains. The Olympic National Park shows an enormous diversity in terrain and weather, though it's a compact area: lakes, waterfalls, rivers, mountains, beaches and rain forest, offering a wealth of outdoor activities! The picture shows a modell of the area in the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.


Passing through Port Angeles - a lumber town and harbor, where, also, the ferry to Canada departs – we drove into the Olympic NP, up to Hurricane Ridge, the highest point to be reached by car, over 6000 ft high. Even now, snow was still piling up high and skiing and snowboarding in this relatively empty "wilderness" must be fun! The park ranger station and visitor center on Hurricane Ridge (see building on the picture) also works as a "day camp" for all outdoor activities, has a café and picknick tables and after a snoeshoe-tour with Marty along the ridge we had earned our lunch: chicken and salads. Weather was very mixed, we have had it all: rain, wind, sunshine, a rainbow and lots of fast moving clouds. With a little more luck we would have seen all the way to Canada, to Victoria Island, but as it was, we could just guess where it is.

We drove along the Elwha River, which restoration project caused lots of headlines. It included the largest dam removal in history and the restoration of the Elwha River watershed and its native fish. 2011 Elwha and Glines Canyon dams were removed and for the first time in over 100 years salmon and trout were able again to naturally migrate past the former dam sites. Especially the native tribes had fought persistently and had succeeded.


The Madison Waterfalls (see pic) are just one of many, and at Lake Crescent (pic) is the largest lake in the Northern part of the park, with a beautiful old Park Lodge from the 1930ies, closed in winter. We hiked a little part of the rainforest trail closeby and explored a wild "wonderland" on its own.

At sunset we drove back to the ferry and arrived in Seattle at around 7 pm, just right for dinner at Steelhead Diner in the Pike Place Market neighborhood. Vivid atmosphere and very good food: I had Oregon sole filled with wild mushrooms and topped with kale in a lemon-wine sauce with mashed potatoes. Back at the hotel around 9 pm after a quick detour to a drugstore for cough sirup. Weirdly, Peter had to show his passport at the cashier to get the sirup.