This was our second day in Olympic National Park, and involved us exploring the northwest coast early in the morning. We started the morning at the Fairholme General Store, which was directly east of our camp ground, in order to get coffee and a snack. Though we had a coffee maker, it saves us clean up time to go directly to the store. From this point we headed back west to the Cape.
The famous area called Cape Flattery, is the most northwest point in the contiguous US, and it has absolutely stunning coastline. From the northwest corner of the park it’s about an hour drive along the coastal towns on the peninsula, and it is absolutely gorgeous. It resembles UK fishing towns, and coastline that would make any person appreciate the natural beauty of the area. It is a very winding two way road but worth the slow driving to get to.
The end of the road brings you to the parking lot to the trail for Cape Flattery. It is an amazing short trail that has a man made wooden walkway above wildlife, and plants. The walkway itself, is an amazing array of plants and lush foliage before you reach the coast. The end of the trail has two observation points of each side of the coast, however you can find other points to walk out through the bushes and get better views of the wildlife that are in the caves, such as puffins, and seals.
It was overcast as you can tell from our pictures, yet it was absolutely a 10/10 destination. I recommend anyone who visits Olympic to take time to go do this short 30 minute trail on the Washington peninsula. One of the most amazing trees I’ve ever seen was on this trail and it features a trunk with 5 different branches growing directly upward, in a unique position. Almost like a coat hangar. Check the picture out!
Once we checked this off our bucket list the adventure continued back into the heart of the Northwest side of the park. Our goal was to see the salmon river, and hike the Sol Duc falls via eagle lake trail. With the overcast of the rain, it made for a spectacular scenic trail. It was about a 1hr 30 minutes from Cape Flattery, to get to the trailhead of this walk.
Before we headed to the trailhead, we went to a local snack shop for supplies for the evening, and snacks for the hike. There is a quaint and peaceful shop, on the west end of Crescent lake. This is the first inland body of water we have seen of the park, and was formed by glacial melt. Thus the water is deep, but crystal clear.
Once we grabbed our snack of coffee, a pastry, and items such as water, and paper towels for the night, we headed back to continue our scenic tour of the day.
The first site, was Salmon river, and there are small pull-offs on the way to the Eagle Lake Trailhead in order to see the waters. The waters itself are nothing spectacular,but there are times where you can see salmon migrating, and jumping out of the waters going upstream, hence the name.
Once we stopped and realized there were not going to be any fish for this time of year, we continued to the trailhead. The trail starts by crossing many small waterfalls, and has incredible amounts of moss along the rocks as you walk. The green that encompasses the forrest makes you feel like your in a fantasy world, and thats just the beginning. As you approach the Sol Duc falls, you can hear the crashing water almost a quarter mile from the site itself. The falls are only about a mile into the trail.
You can get a great view of them via a man made bridge, the puts you directly over them. The uniqueness about the falls, is the way the water rolls off the ridge, through two difference split streams, then crashed down almost 50ft. At this point of the year there had been much glacial melt, and rain, thus the waterfall was running heavy.
We continued on this trail to the top of Eagle Lake, and we were the only ones there. This was an absolute peaceful and sublime hike, and once again the overcast and drizzle really made for a great setting in the lush green forests of Olympic. The remainder of the trail after the falls to the lake, is an ascension of almost 1000 feet through unique trees, and vegetation. While we were at the lake we enjoyed a small snack lunch, and relaxed near the peaceful water. This proved to be a Top 10 hike for us through the trip, and for a day hike was the perfect experience.
It was time to head back to camp as we had about 2 hours of daylight left, and we had not cooked. Ashley made us a nice dinner, and we headed to bed early, as we knew we had a VERY early morning ahead of us to reach the Port Angeles ferry, and make it to Victoria, BC to meet our friends tomorrow!
Expenses
5 snack
5.26 snack
Total – 10.26
Miles Driven – 160