Today we went on what I’m pretty sure will be our last hike. I’d looked through my guidebook and decided that Olympic Hot Springs would be a good hike – it was only 5 miles, not too much elevation gain, and I’d never hiked to a hot springs before!
We decided that Dad and I would take my little RV to the trail so Mom could have the Jeep to go into Port Angeles to get the mail and a few other errands. We were going to meet up with her later in the afternoon.
The trailhead is at the end of the Olympic Hot Springs Road – a twisty, windy, narrow, and in some short place not paved. I’m pretty sure Cruise America would not recommend me driving their RV on it, but we made it!
The book said the trail followed the old road – there used to be a resort up there, similar to the one at Sol Duc, but they tore it down. I have hiked many old roads in Shenandoah and they are simply wide trails so we were both surprised when this old road was paved. And not only just a little, pretty much the whole way! There were sections of this trail/road that were in better shape than the road we drove in on!
The good news was that it made the walking easy and we got to the springs quickly.
The hot springs were a bit disappointing. They were very shallow and very muddy. We walked all the way back and tried to find a good pool to soak in, however most weren’t very inviting. We finally went back to the 1st one, which we thought was the coolest (temperature wise) and chatted with some folks who were getting out. They said it was very very hot, but that your body gets numb and then it feels good. ok.
I put my feet in and it was so hot it hurt and I couldn’t imagine putting more of myself in. Dad got his legs wet and kinda sat on a rock, but he didn’t really get in.
We ate a quick lunch then headed back down to the RV. Once again the paved road and lack of much scenery helped up get back to the RV faster!
As we drove down the road we came to an overlook at Mills Lake where both our cell phone connected! Dad called Mom to set up our meeting place and I took pictures and checked email!
Back in the early 1900’s the folks living in the Elwha Valley dammed up the Elwha river, creating 2 lakes that I’m guessing they used as reservoirs for drinking water. This dam interrupted the salmon migration up the Elwha River so the park service has decided that they will remove the dams and restore the river to the salmon habitat it once was!
As we made our way to the Olympic National Park Visitor center we stopped for gas. I went to pay at the pump and saw that they only took debit at the pump and you had to go inside for credit. This is the second time I have encountered this and it’s my only complaint to the State of Washington? What’s up? Why can’t I use my credit card at your gas pumps? Fred Meyer lets me do it!
Once we met up with Mom we drove up Hurricane Ridge to the visitor center there. We climbed to about 5000 feet! Olympic is such a HUGE and diverse park – Coast, Rainforest, & Glacier covered peaks! At the Hurricane Ridge visitor center area there were alpine meadows just like at Mt. Rainier.
We grabbed a quick snack at the snack bar before they closed and then went out to explore the paved loop trails around the meadow. Yes, that’s right, more paved trails. There were more wildflowers here and views of the entire snow covered ridge. The sun was in exactly the wrong spot, but we got some pictures anyway.
One of the loops, the one that looked down into Port Angeles and the Strait of Juan de Fuca had a HUGE snowdrift in the middle of it! Odd because it was the only place there was snow! The woods around the trail had no snow, only the trail!
After we walked we drove out a dirt Jeep road to Obstruction Point. No idea why it’s named Obstruction Point as the view is fabulous! The road was rugged – narrow, windy, big holes. Funny that the closest thing to a trail that we went on was a road that we drove down!
It was car hiking at it’s finest. The views & the wildflowers were abundant. We also saw several Spruce Grouse, a Marmot, a deer – that for some reason was licking our Jeep, even left tongue marks – and some bunnies.
When we got back to the visitor center it was already after 9. Our campground claims that they lock the gates at 10 and you can’t get in. If you have the car you can just park outside the gate and walk in, but I had my RV out! I needed to get it back to it’s campsite or I wouldn’t have a safe place to sleep tonight! I hopped in and hightailed it back to the campground, arriving at about 9:45! Mom and dad were right behind and also got in before the gates closed.
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| Olympic: Cape Flattery |
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