Revised; photos added.
Last sunday we headed westward into a cloudy forecast. First stop, the Twilight store in Forks, which was jammed with people, not all young and not all female. SA wanted to get t-shirts for her son. I will admit to being ever-so-momentarily tempted by a "Team Jacob : Join the Pack" refrigerator magnet. We tried to go to the thrift store but found it is only open two afternoons a week. Then to the grocery store, where we ran wild in the aisles, and stuffed 3 days of meals and treats into the car on top of the clothes, jackets, spare shoes, rain gear, maps, and a complete library of reference books and recreational reading.
It was early still, so we went to the Hoh Rain Forest. It's down to a routine by now: first stop with each successive party of visitors is at the Big Spruce Tree. It's big. There's ferns, and—most of all—stopping resets the pace from driving-to-get-somewhere to Being There. We had by then driven out of the fog and clouds, and had lovely sunshine the whole time we were in the forest. We picnicked, then to the visitor center, then around the Hall of Mosses Trail, all three of our cameras snapping but at different details.
Then we found a grassy sunny spot and read our books for a while.
By 6 PM we had unloaded the food and stuff into our cabin at Kalaloch Lodge, on Olympic National Park's coastal strip, and were down on the beach. SA had her shoes off and was standing very still with the water around her ankles, watching the waves roll in. PH was looking for rocks. I was walking in the water. It was a miracle: the sunny weather held. Later we sat in three different spots and read our books for a while.
Repeat five or six times, over the next 60 hours :-).
A proper sunset, maybe a little cloudy on the horizon but yeah: the sun fell into the ocean. Monday morning, down on the beach as the tide receded. The beach at Kalaloch is very flat, the tide goes out out out and the incoming waves wander in about half an inch tall...
but we didn't stay, we wanted the low tide in the tidepools at Beach Four a few miles north. Highly satisfactory manifestations of purple and orange stars, green anemones, barnacles and so on.
The tide began to come back. We walked past the tidepool rocks. SA had her shoes off and was standing very still with the water around her ankles, watching the waves roll in. PH was looking for rocks. I was walking in the water. Still the sunny weather held. Later we sat in three different spots and read our books for a while.
The roadsides of the West End are thick with cow parsnip, whose name we could never remember, no matter how often we retrieved it and said it aloud. All over, all the marginal places: roadsides, bluffs, field edges. Soon we had a whole roster of roadside 'animal plants' to mix up in our aging brains, cow parsnip, plenty of foxglove, some goatsbeard, and skunk cabbage leaves each four feet tall.
Back to the cabin; and for the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday, all we did was walk on the beach, alone or in pairs or all three together; and read books, alone or together. We saw seals, and lots of gulls, crab shells and parts. Pelicans. Any day with pelicans in it is a good day (though PH and SA didn't seem to care). Monday sunny, Tuesday cloudy and moving towards light rain.
Wednesday morning, checked out of the cabin and stopped on the way at Ruby Beach. Fog, light rain, those wildly photogenic sea stacks, a few intertidal critters; variously picking up rocks, walking in the water, standing still watching. Back on the road. PH had of course remembered the Forks thrift store hours, so on our way through Forks we went there. Then lunch at the wonderful taqueria MS had told me about, and home.
1 comment:
these photos are truly stunning! makes me want to drive right over. so glad you have this wonderful time with friends and nature.
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