#45 Olympic National park counter clockwise first stop Quinault rain forest

The original plan was to leave Seattle and go north towards Vancouver and check that out then down toward to town called Bellingham to receive Amazon packages and mail. Then we would ride the Port Townsend Ferry and start our tour of Olympic National Park counterclockwise. I looked at all of the different campgrounds we might utilize and one that was pretty cool near the south was going to close for the year on September 18th.I decided to reverse our direction and leave Seattle, go south and off to the left and do Olympic clockwise direction instead. We also found an Escapees park in Chimacum and that would be a good place to finish up. We went by Tacoma then up towards Olympic at the southwest corner. A park ranger suggested to stay at South Beach because it was cozier for large RVs and a little more available so we did that and it was great.

We stayed at a NPS campground ocean front called South Beach. It was 14 per night. I say this because an Ocean front view is usually a little more than that.

Quinalt Rain forest

World's Oldest Sitka spruce

Olympic National Park will be a hard act to follow for the rest of you parks. We stayed at South beach at Kalaloch (Clay lock) for two nights to see Quinault rain forest.

As we entered Quinault rain forest, we found ourselves in something smaller than a town. A few basic groceries needs and a restaurant and trailheads. I saw a nice little house on the lake with a realtor sign in the front yard. I didn't know if that meant for sale or rent. If you look at a map you will see Hwy 101 on the pacific coast, and you will see houses and farms and ranches all along the way. The greenest part of the map is National park boundary. When you turn into one of the rain forest roads you will drive for a while until you get to a park ranger entry point. Prior to this area there seems to be free range cattle and people. I Think of it like the Battleground park in Greensboro. No one lives in the park, but people live in neighborhoods like Battle forest which are with 100 feet of the park.

We settled in at South Beach which was right on the Pacific Ocean and it was really very beautiful. I got some nice sunset pictures and it was a full moon or near about. The next morning, I went out on the surf and sat there in a beach chair and did a little of dictation for the blog. Life feels right pretty good about now. There were a driftwood logs piled up all along the coast. On our first extrusion we learned that Olympic is a collection of several rainforests the first one that we came to was called Quinault. We noticed that there was a really old Tree on the brochure at the visitor’s center. We drove around but couldn't quite find it. A Park Rangers told us what road to take and we made that our first stop. It’s the oldest living tree is kind in the world. We did a nice little hike through the rainforest and it blended two 1-mile hikes together plus a little connector which made it about a 3-mile event. When we finished the girls rested and I needed walk back to the truck. I picked up the girls we planned to eat at the salmon restaurant. It seemed a little bit pricey or I was a little too cheap or something, so we headed on back to the house. It was in this area and actually in the Poulsbo area that I noticed how extremely available weed is. There are Marijuana stores all over the place. I thought was pretty cool because I know how frowned upon it is in in North Carolina. It’s just okay here that's kind of nice. I lost my rights to smoke because I don’t do well with intoxicants but fun for people who do. I tend to do too much of everything, and I hate running out, ever. We got back with little fanfare kind of decided it was about time to pack up and go to the next rain forest the next day.

Quinalt rain forest different tree but pretty big.

The next set of pictures is of a nice hike we took through Quinalt

Randall habitat for the night

I like images like this where the new growth has taken up residence on an old decomposing stump.

I thought these trees were Aspen but I found out I was wrong. They are called Red Adler. The Elk come to these groves to rub their antlers. I assume the hunters know this and set up camp nearby.

The water bottle is for perspective. These trees are so big. This one looked kind of petrified.

Landscapers try to do this

Dang yall

I could live here.

The next day we went on another hike. As we were leaving the campground on the third day, we found some elk out in the field. They were really beautiful so here's the nice picture of them grazing.

These guys are a bit much. He plays king of the mountain and then when he wins, he has sex constantly with 20 women day and night. I confess that does sound pretty fun.