It’s always interesting to see how your campsite looks like in broad daylight after having arrived late the day before. It was a nice forest setting.

The weather was cloudy, and the forecast promised some rain. We started the day with porridge, and went for the shower.

There was one of each: sink, toilet, and shower – and too many campers. We left the campsite around 11:00, to check out the waterfront of the state park we were in.

The signage at the pier was quite educational. Who would have thought?

We started driving and stopped for gas a few miles later, where the next lesson awaited us.

I wonder how often that happened, before they applied those signs to the gas pumps.

We continued driving to the Olympic National Park Vistor Center. We confronted a somewhat unenthusiastic ranger with our ideas for the next days and got some valuable input. For instance, that the Hoh Rain Forest and Hurricane Ridge trails were closed. In wise foresight, I also bought an emergency rain poncho for 3 $, which – unlike my rain jacket – would also cover my backpack. The nice lady at the counter couldn’t resist to practise her German on me after the usual “Where are you from?” small talk.

We took the road up to Hurricane Ridge to have a look at the Olympic Mountains. Well, since I already started with signs, here is another one:

So far, I was more worried of bears, but a hungry bicyclist lurking in the shadows might be just as dangerous. Joke aside, it’s always nice to see measures making roads more cyclist-friendly, especially in a car-focused country like the US.

Up at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center it was cold and windy with occasional rain drops that threatened our camera lenses. Although it wasn’t sunny, the clouds were high enough to grant us some impressive sights along the short round trail.

We drove down the same road we came up and continued on the 101 alongside Lake Crescent.

Meanwhile it started raining heavily.

We took a turn left onto the Sol Duc Road, that lead into a scenic forest which satisfied both, Marius’ fondness of ferns and mine of mosses. At the end of the road, we geared up for a short hike to the Sol Duc Falls and into that marvellous piece of nature.

The dimensions of the trees compared to European, cultivated forests are hard to grasp and even harder to capture.

It wasn’t easy taking photos in the rain without risking the health of our camera equipment. While Marius is mostly using his mirror-less Olympus camera with different lenses, and his girlfriend’s phone, I do most of the shots you see here with my Sony RX100M3. For panoramas and HDR photographs, I use my Samsung Galaxy S8. In rare cases, I use the waterproof GoPro Hero 5 action camera, which I also carry around, for photographs as well, e.g. in rain like today.

When we arrived at the Sol Duc Falls, my rain jacket was already at its limit. Marius had it better, as he brought his umbrella. It might sound weird for a hike, but especially for taking photos it is a great thing to have. If you put it on your backpack’s shoulder straps, it even becomes a hands-free luxury.

The view of the Sol Duc River and Falls is definitely worth the hike – let alone the surrounding forest.

Regardless of the rain, we didn’t have enough yet, and followed a small trail deeper into the woods along the river. I had to switch into my newly acquired emergency rain poncho, which had short arms – not as in too short, just short, like a t-shirt. Why on earth would anyone want short arms on such a piece of clothing? It makes even less sense than cherry flavoured coke. I had to put my arms inside to keep them dry. When the trail began to fade into a thin line occupied with fallen trees, we decided to turn around. Our pants were already soaked from the wet plants we pushed through and it was just in this moment that the rain got even heavier.

When we looked on the map, we realised that the actual trail going upwards the Sol Duc River was on the other side of it. Ours wasn’t marked. As we went back, it got darker and the GoPro footage looks like a scene from a horror movie with the umbrella-killer stalking me through the woods.

We both made it out of the forest alive and found shelter in our heated car.

On our way back to the 101, we noticed a “Hot Springs” sign and checked the place out. They had three pools filled with water from a natural hot spring smelling of sulphur. We were tempted, but it was too crowded for our taste, so we passed. Using all the air outlets and heating capabilities of the car, we created our own hot van hoping to dry up as we drive.

The last intermediate destination was the small town of Forks, where we used the mobile internet coverage to find a campsite. We made a few calls and ended up at the Three Rivers Resort close to the Ocean. They were still open around 20:00, and had WiFi as well as a shop. I got myself a Pepsi and some dried pork sausage to combine it with our pasta-and-pesto dinner. We cooked in the rain and ate in the car while watching a YouTube video about SpaceX’s recent update on their next spacecraft.

Not that we didn’t enjoy the appropriate weather for a hike into the rain forest, but let’s hope tomorrow is more on the sunny side.