I missed the trees

Big Sitka Spruce

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was getting a bit road-weary at this point in my trip, and I was looking forward to just staying put for a while. My last stop - Olympic National Park in Washington - rejuvenated me somewhat, and of all the places that I'd seen along the way, this is where I wanted to stay the longest. All this despite it being an unplanned stop. Leaving Yellowstone a couple of days early, I had a bit of time to kill before getting to my final destination.

The first thing that entered my mind when I crossed the park's border was, "Oh wow...!" And then I realized what I'd been missing all this time. I've lived near the forests of south and eastern Ontario, and of New York State, northwest New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. As spectacular as Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming were, they just didn't have the same lush green-ness that I'm accustomed to seeing at this time of year. Utah, being mostly desert, had almost no greenery to speak of, and Colorado and Wyoming featured these odd scrubby sage bushes. What a difference I saw when entering Washington State.

Morning Dew

Of all the National Parks I've visited, I've enjoyed my time at Olympic National Park the most. Of course, there's the aforementioned tree-ness of this area, but more than that, the pace of life seemed to be much slower than elsewhere. For one thing, this place is really, really remote - I had no internet or cell phone access for days - and there were far fewer visitors than I saw at the other parks. My campsite in the Mora campground was spectacular, and of the 94 available sites, maybe only 6 or 7 were occupied. No "competitive camping" here! I definitely want to return with more time at my disposal - there's a number of hiking and backpacking trips I want to do, and many, many more waterfalls, seascapes, and mountains to photograph.

Falls near the Sol Duc River

As always, more pictures are posted on Flickr...