Marius started the day by pushing the panorama button on the car key. The door opened the view on the Ocean.
Since the dunes cast a shadow on our car, we moved to another, more sunny, vacant campsite whose prior occupants had left already. After friendly asking our neighbour to turn off the engine of his oversized RV, the stage was set for pancakes.
Since there was no running water at this campsite, we bagged up the dirty dishes and started driving to the Quinault Lake area, which was our main destination for the day. We set course to the first campsite to use their washrooms, to refill our water, and to do the dishes.
From there we started the first hike of the day through the rain forest. Believe us, when we state that you’ll never get enough of those. I’ll let the photographs do the talking.
The second part of the trail back to the parking lot lead us along the shore of Quinault Lake.
According to the GPS, our average hiking pace on this trip ranges from 2 to 3 km/h, including all the photo stops we do. A good number to have for planning.
We got back into the car and saw a sign advertising the World’s largest Spruce Tree on the left side of the road. Of course, we had to check that one out.
A short trail later, our jaws dropped to the floor in awe. That was an impressive plant.
We continued our drive along the South Shore Road and beyond towards the Irely Lake trail head. The forest along the road had less giant trees and more broadleaves, but still had all the ferns, moss, and lichens hanging from them. The prior trail was in a state park, now we entered Olympic National Park again.
Although it was already past 16:00, and we had at least 3.5 hours of driving to do, we decided to get at least a sneak peak of the trail. It didn’t look like much from the parking lot, but once inside we found ourselves in another spectacular forest.
We couldn’t help ourselves and walked up until Lake Irely. It was a peaceful, shallow forest lake with plenty of live, unlike the glacier lakes higher up in the mountains. We even encountered a snake there.
When we arrived at the van, it was already past 18:00, and our shoes reflected the muddiness of the trail.
We drove back to the 101, this time using the North Shore Road. Another short stop at the Quinault Lake was due. A fisherman was just leaving, again without a catch, but he let us know that there plenty of fish of all kinds in the lake.
There was a picnic area with more Giant Cedar trees. Here’s another size comparison.
While Marius was driving, I planned the route by looking for a suitable campground and a gas station along the way. The latter was a 7-Eleven one, so I got some Pepsi and a highly processed piece of chicken with barbecue sauce to satisfy my food cravings. With some chill music on, Marius drove us to our destination while I blogged.
It was around 22:00 when we arrived at Fort Stevens state park and checked ourselves in. Most government camping facilities we encountered were primitive campsites. This one was actually the best maintained site of this trip. Everything looked new and clean. All tent sites were taken, so we had use a an RV site with water and electricity hookup. With 32 $ a bit more pricey, but still worth it.
We had our last supper, which was composed of vegetable wraps and soup with rice.
When we heard a quiet noise and turned our heads to the side, we were looking into the frozen faces of a whole gang of raccoons that was slowly approaching the table. However, on our first movement, they were gone quicker than we could activate a camera in range.
Tomorrow, we will reach our accommodation for the duty part of the trip and return the car at Portland International Airport.