Mossy Waterfall, Olympic National Park
This waterfall was my favorite part of our trip to the Olympic Peninsula last month. Long story to follow if you have some time to kill...
We tried to see a little bit of everything in Olympic National Park, which included Sol Duc Falls. The plan was to hike to Sol Duc the long way - a nearly 6 mile hike. When a park employee at the Hot Springs resort casually mentioned that we could expect to see up to 3 feet of snow on the trail, my husband and I exchanged a look that said "Uhhh... maybe this isn't a good idea." The park employee saw it and assured us that it would be fine because others had been through and compacted the snow for us. We exchanged another glance, shrugged and figured what the hell?
We immediately ran into difficulty. After following the beginning of the trail across a bridge and a few yards into the woods... we promptly lost the trail. After a couple of false starts and some aimless wandering, we figured out that the trail and marker sign were buried under a huge fallen tree. If only we had known it was an omen of things to come. The trail was in ROUGH shape. Lots of fallen trees, several feet of snow in spots, and in a handful of places the trail was completely washed out forcing us to find routes around and back to the trail again. It was slow going. More than a few times I thought the smart thing to do would be to turn back, but we figured going back would be just as hard as continuing on, so we did.
And then we found this waterfall and it was all worth it. It's the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen. This photo does not do it justice. This is NOT Sol Duc Falls but I found this waterfall far prettier than Sol Duc.
After stopping to take a million photos, we continued on to Sol Duc Falls and then started down the trail back. The trail back was in much better shape than the trail out to the falls so we were in high spirits. And then we hit an impasse. What would have normally been an easy rock hop across a small creek had turned into a tumbling crashing waterfall thanks to snow melt and rains. The water was so deep and fast we couldn't find a safe way to cross. We were forced to double back. Fortunately we were able to hike out the last 2 miles along the road instead of along the rough trail we traversed on the way out.
Including a quick 2 mile hike earlier in the day, we had planned on a 7-ish mile hiking day. All told, we calculated we easily hiked over 10 miles that day! It was a fun adventure though and I'd do it again in a heartbeat :)
Mossy Waterfall, Olympic National Park
This waterfall was my favorite part of our trip to the Olympic Peninsula last month. Long story to follow if you have some time to kill...
We tried to see a little bit of everything in Olympic National Park, which included Sol Duc Falls. The plan was to hike to Sol Duc the long way - a nearly 6 mile hike. When a park employee at the Hot Springs resort casually mentioned that we could expect to see up to 3 feet of snow on the trail, my husband and I exchanged a look that said "Uhhh... maybe this isn't a good idea." The park employee saw it and assured us that it would be fine because others had been through and compacted the snow for us. We exchanged another glance, shrugged and figured what the hell?
We immediately ran into difficulty. After following the beginning of the trail across a bridge and a few yards into the woods... we promptly lost the trail. After a couple of false starts and some aimless wandering, we figured out that the trail and marker sign were buried under a huge fallen tree. If only we had known it was an omen of things to come. The trail was in ROUGH shape. Lots of fallen trees, several feet of snow in spots, and in a handful of places the trail was completely washed out forcing us to find routes around and back to the trail again. It was slow going. More than a few times I thought the smart thing to do would be to turn back, but we figured going back would be just as hard as continuing on, so we did.
And then we found this waterfall and it was all worth it. It's the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen. This photo does not do it justice. This is NOT Sol Duc Falls but I found this waterfall far prettier than Sol Duc.
After stopping to take a million photos, we continued on to Sol Duc Falls and then started down the trail back. The trail back was in much better shape than the trail out to the falls so we were in high spirits. And then we hit an impasse. What would have normally been an easy rock hop across a small creek had turned into a tumbling crashing waterfall thanks to snow melt and rains. The water was so deep and fast we couldn't find a safe way to cross. We were forced to double back. Fortunately we were able to hike out the last 2 miles along the road instead of along the rough trail we traversed on the way out.
Including a quick 2 mile hike earlier in the day, we had planned on a 7-ish mile hiking day. All told, we calculated we easily hiked over 10 miles that day! It was a fun adventure though and I'd do it again in a heartbeat :)