olympic peninsula

I just got back from an amazing trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. Incredible. I could have spent at least another week out there. It’s kind of like an immense oasis across Puget Sound — parts of the peninsula felt so isolated that it seemed like I was on a different planet.

We took a ton of great photos while we were out there. I made Rob the official trip photographer after seeing that he has much better photographic composition skills than I do. Must be the BFA.

Hurricane Ridge was our starting point and we picked a camp site just inside the park called Heart O’ the Hills. We kept calling out our camp in an Irish accent. We were quite pleased with ourselves about that.

We hiked up to the highest point at Hurricane Ridge. Apparently on a clear day you can see all the way across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Vancouver Island and the mainland, but unfortunately it was pretty cloudy when we were up there and we only got a glimpse of the ocean. Nevertheless, we got some cool photos from the ridge.

After seeking out a shower the next morning, we hit up some trails near Lake Crescent and went on a hike into the forest to see Sol Duc Falls.

A theme that became common on the trip was to see decaying, warped, and broken natural forms combined with interesting new growths. Wood under natural stress does amazing and beautiful things.

The next day we packed up our camp early and after tracking down another shower, we drove out to see the Hoh Rainforest on the west side of the park. Minus the nasty, biting flies and the exceptional number of recreational vehicles, the Hoh was quite lovely. The amount of moss and rich vegetation was the most impressive part of the Hoh.

We had a quick picnic in the Hoh, but those biting flies were serious carnivores and we had to cut it short. Given that no one else seemed to be bothered by them, we theorized that they were attracted to the Aveda shampoo that we used earlier. It’s just one of the hazards of smelling botanical.

So, we turned our sexy Ford Taurus rental toward the coast. The Olympic coast is breathtakingly gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of the untouched coast I saw on my trip to Cape Town a few years ago.

The fierce, chilly winds make the trees take on a wind-blown look and the tides drag thousands of those fallen trees onto the shore as driftwood, piling them in occasionally interesting formations.

Our last night ended with a perfect sunset and yielded one of my favorite photos. Rob’s driftwood stick typography was superb and the composition of this photo couldn’t be any better.