On Saturday morning we stopped by the world's largest Sitka Spruce on the way to the Colonel Bob trail, making it almost 2 miles up the steep and rough terrain before heading back so we could continue on our journey. The Colonel Bob trail is a tough one covering 7 miles (one-way) up over 4,200 feet. The maintenance is tough to keep up with and it has had a lot of downed trees along the trail over the years. It's one we'll come back to finish someday, but with 50-pound squirming toddlers in our packs, we weren't going to do much of it that day. Four miles was plenty and we were grateful we both had hiking poles. After lunch we left Beth's house and stopped by the largest Western Red Cedar in the world along with another impressively large cedar on the 101 through Forks and over to La Push and First Beach. It's interesting to go between the National Park and the forests that have been cleared - very dramatic between old trees and stump meadows. After La Push we met up with Aunts Clare and Jack for the Marymere Falls trail hike before going to Port Angeles for the night. They shared some Harbinger wine with us; it was a good red called "Rapture". Lots of local wineries and lavender farms on the north Peninsula.
Sunday we packed up and drove up the Elwah River to hike the Boulder Creek trail to the Olympic Hot Springs and back (about 5 miles round-trip). Many, many hikes to go back for, but we had a good weekend with cool, overcast days which was nice for hiking. To keep with the bridge tracking of our earlier trip, we drove home via the newly-remodeled Hood Canal Bridge and the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge (bridge #3 - Galloping Gertie was #1 and #2 is for westbound traffic).
Olympic Peninsula Photos
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