Olympic National Park, WA

Friday afternoon we waited for our friend Scott to get off of work, (about 1pm) we packed the car and headed out to Squamish, British Columbia for a weekend full of climbing. It took us about 5 hours to get to Squamish. On our way up there we passed through the city of Vancouver, which is like a mini New York city. It was really cool to see a city so big, so close to the water and the mountains. Truly one of the coolest cities we have seen. After passing through Vancouver, we headed up the "Sea to Sky" highway which took us all the way into Squamish. Right outside of Squamish, as we crested the hill, we saw "The Chief" which has to be one of the most impressive rock formations we have ever seen. We pulled into Squamish around 6pm and still had some day light left, so we decided to hit the "Smoke Bluff's" north of the town to get a couple of climbs in. We took to the "Smoke Bluff's", got two climbs in, (5.9 & a 5.10d) then called it a day. We found a place to stay in Squamish for the night, and were really excited about the next day of climbing.

Saturday morning we woke up around 7am for a full day of climbing, and found that the weather outside wasn't the greatest. It had rained the night before, and still was coming down lightly outside. We headed into town for some breakfast to talk over options we had. We studied the guidebook over breakfast looking for places that would be dry enough to climb. We found a couple of crags up in the Cheakamus region that looked promising. We finished breakfast and headed up there. We parked the car and hiked up to the "Main Event" and "Circus" walls. It took us about 15 minutes to get up there, and once there we found most of the routes to be dry. We were excited that we were able to climb on such a crummy day. After we warmed up on a 5.8 and a 5.10, the word had gotten out. The crowds were coming in. I guess most people looking to climb had the same idea, since this place was one of a couple of areas that stayed dry in a light rain. Never the less, we made the most of the day and jumped on some more 10's and 11's before we decided to call it a day around 6pm. We hiked back down to the car and headed back to the camp site to fix some dinner. On our way back to the camp site, our friend Scott had suggested to go by Whistler Village, to see where the Winter Olympics were held. That sounded like a great idea. We passed through Whistler Village which was really cool. There was a mountain bike event there that day, so there were tons of bikers around. We stopped in at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things, then headed back to camp to cook. We got to our camp site around 8:30ish and cooked a great meal. We chatted after dinner about were we wanted to go the next day, then hit the sack.

Sunday morning we slept in till 8:30am, packed our camp stuff up, and headed a couple of miles down the road to an area known as "Cal-Check". It looked like a pretty cool area, and the guide book suggested that it would dry out pretty quickly from the rains the day before. Side Note: As we are packing our stuff up from camp, Jodi decided to take some pictures of the camp site and surrounding areas. She took a couple of pictures, then all of sudden our camera froze up. We couldn't turn it off, nor did the display work. I took the battery out, and fooled around with it for several minutes, and couldn't get it to work. We were super bummed, because now we couldn't take any pictures. We would have to take it back to Best Buy, and get it replaced. Long story short, we didn't have many pictures of the weekend, because Saturday the weather was horrible, and Sunday our camera broke. Anyways, we hiked up to the cliffs and climbed a 5.7, 5.8, and (2) 5.10.b's. We ran a couple of laps on each, and then moved on to another area about 5 minutes away. Once there we ran another 5.8 and a 5.10b/c. by now it was close to 4pm, and still had a 5 hour drive ahead of us. We didn't want to get Scott back too late because he had to work the next day. We left the crag and headed into Squamish to grab a quick bite to eat before hitting the road. We left Squamish around 5 and got back to Seattle around 10pm. We threw all of our stuff in Scott's garage and went to bed. Below are some pictures of us and the Squamish area after we finished climbing. Took these with Scott's camera.

Monday morning Jodi got up early and went for a run, and I sleep in to 10am or so. Our first priority for the day was to go to Best Buy in Seattle, and exchange our camera. We found the closest Best Buy, and headed over there. We approached the customer service desk and told them our issue with the camera. They printed out our receipt and found that we purchased the "Black Tie" protection plan which covers accidental breakage, lemon products, etc..... This was good on my part, since I knew we were taking this across country, and if something happened to the camera, we wanted to be covered, so I thought..... It turns out, you can't return a opened product back to Best Buy after 15 days, which we were well beyond. The "Black Tie" coverage I bought with my original camera purchase only covers replacement if they claim it can't be fixed. The employee there told me the camera could be fixed and they would have to send it away, and it would be about 14 days. Jodi and I were both floored. We pleaded our case with the manager there and told him that we were on a road trip and that we didn't have 14 days to hang around Seattle, waiting for our camera to be fixed. After 20 minutes of arguing with the guy, we had had it. We were finding our self without a camera and still over half of our trip left. We left the store in disgust and decided to find another location, were we could try again. We searched around and found another Best Buy north of Seattle. We headed up there, and told the guy there our situation. To our amazement, the employee there understood and gave us an even exchange no questions asked. We were in and out of there within 10 minutes. It was amazing to us the difference in service between the two places. By the end of it, we got a brand new camera and both were very happy. We were expecting this exchange would only take an hour or 2 at most, and found that it really ate up most of the afternoon. We wrote off taking a drive out to see Mt. Rainier because it was getting late. Instead, we decided to get an oil change on the rental car, because we noticed the service light came on the other day. We drove over to the Firestone, waited about an hour for them to change the oil, then headed back to Scott's for a relaxing evening.

Tuesday morning we woke up early and headed to Seattle to catch the 8:10am ferry over to Bainbridge Island on our way to Olympic National Park. Our plan was to head over there for the day, spend the night at a campground, explore more the next day, then come back to Seattle. The ferry ride across was about 30 minutes, and quite chilly. Below is a picture of us on the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. WINDY!!!

Once we arrived at Bainbridge Island we headed to the city of Port Angeles, which is were the Visitor Center for Olympic National Park is. It took us about 3 hours to get there, and it was an enjoyable drive. Once at the visitor center we headed inside, picked up a map, and talked with one of the rangers about places to go, and things to see. She suggested we first head up to Hurricane Ridge to get a 360 degree view of Olympic. She also gave us recommended campgrounds and other activities. We left the visitor center and took her suggestion and headed up to Hurricane Ridge. It took us about 45 minutes or so to get up there, but well worth the drive. The views from the top are outstanding. We snapped some pictures, then went on a mini hike to another peak to check out the view. We hiked for about 2 hours then headed back to the car and back down to the main highway, 101. Below is a picture of Jodi and I at the top of Hurricane Ridge with all of Olympic behind us.

Below is a picture of the hike we did going up from Hurricane Ridge.



Below is a picture of Hurricane Ridge road and scenery that goes with it.

Once we got back on the 101, we headed through the town of Port Angeles and onto the Sol Duc area, were we wanted to set up camp for the night. On our way there we passed Lake Crescent, which is on the out skirts of Olympic. We stopped shot some photos and moved on. Below is a picture of Lake Crescent.

After our photos of Lake Crescent, we continued on to Sol Duc. As we were right outside of Sol Duc we noticed a nature trail that was right off the road and it looked really fun. We parked the car, got out and hiked the trail for about a mile or so. It was a loop trail and gave us a lot to look at. The forest was dense and the trees were massive.

After the hike we headed into Sol Duc were we found a camping spot at the campground. Below is a picture of our campsite and the massive trees surrounding us.

We set up camp and decided to take a 30 minute "power nap", then continue on with the rest of the afternoon. After our nap, Jodi was lucky and got a picture of a sleeping Sasquatch!!!

After the rare sighting, we left the campground and headed right up the road for the Sol Duc Falls. We hiked into the falls, which was about a mile, and took a ton of pictures. We hung out down there for a little while, then headed back to the parking lot, and eventually back to camp. Once at camp we started a fire (first one of the trip) and cooked dinner. After dinner we relaxed by the fire until all of our wood was gone. Turned in around 9:30 and were looking forward to the next day. Below are some pictures of the Sol Duc Falls

Here is a picture of Jodi next to our first camp fire of the trip.

Wednesday morning we slept in till 9 or so. We packed our tent up, cooked some breakfast and headed out for another full day. Or first stop was the Hoh Rain Forest. From Sol Duc to the Hoh Rain Forest was about an 1-1/2 drive. On our way out from Sol Duc, we noticed another nature trail called "Ancient Groves". We decided to stop and do the quick loop before pressing on to the Hoh Rain Forest. Below is a picture of the Ancient Groves nature trail.

After the nature walk we continued on and passed through the town of Forks, Washington, which we didn't know until we were there, is the home to the popular "Twilight" series books and movies. We know very little about the "Twilight" series, but that town is everything "Twilight". We arrived at the Hoh Rain Forest and headed to the visitor center. On our way to the visitor center we noticed a sign which read "big spruce tree". We had to stop, and we were glad we did. It was literally right off the road, and they weren't kidding, it was big. The tree is a Sitka spruce, and is estimated to be about 500-550 years old. The tree diameter is 12-1/2 feet, and over 270 feet tall. Below is a picture of us at the "Big Spruce Tree"

After the quick stop at the tree, we continued on to the visitor center, and picked up a trail map. There were two trails there that were worth hiking. We first did the "Hall of Mosses Trail" which was about an hour round trip. We took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun. Then we hiked the "Spruce Nature Trail". That hike was a little longer, and just as nice as the "Hall Of Mosses Trail". After the two hikes, it was time to head back to Seattle and catch one of the evening ferries across. We left the Hoh Rain Forest and drove through the town of Forks again, where we grabbed a quick bite and then continued on. After about an hour or so, we stopped again. This time by Lake Crescent to check out the "Marymere Falls", which was only about an hour round trip hike. He hiked up to the falls, snapped some pictures and headed back to the car. Below is a picture of the "Marymere Falls".

We continued on to Bainbridge Island and got there around 7:45pm. We waited to catch the 8:10pm ferry across back to Seattle. Once on the ferry we had perfect sunset views of both the Olympic mountains we just came out of (to the west), and the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier. (to the east) Below are some pictures we took on the ferry, heading back to Seattle.

Olympic National Park

Mt. Rainier

Seattle, WA

Once we docked in Seattle, we headed back to Scott's house were we got some sleep.

Thursday we woke up early, and were itching to climb. We hadn't climbed since Sunday in Squamish and needed to get some climb time in. We headed out to a local crag called "Exit 38". A clever name for a crag, because it is off of Interstate 90 at exit 38. Anyways, Jodi and I headed up to the climbs and started climbing around 9:30am. There wasn't anyone there which was kind of nice. The views were outstanding and the climbing was pretty good too. Around 3pm, more people started showing up and things started to get a little crowded. We were talking with some locals there, and they said most people in the Seattle area treat this crag as their gym. So it made sense that around the time most people got off of work, it started to get crowded. Even with the crowds, we climbed and climbed. We were treating this day as an endurance day from the start. We had to put in some serious miles. Around 6pm or so, our buddy Scott showed up after work and climbed with us until it got dark around 9pm. After the day was done with, Jodi and I turned out 42 laps in 11-1/2 hours. We were smoked. Half of those laps were on 5.10a or harder. We hiked back down to the car, via headlamp, and headed to the local watering hole to grab a beer and a sandwich. We knocked out of there around 10:30pm, went home and staight to bed. Below is the view of the mountains while climbing at "Exit 38"

Friday we slept in till 9am, grabbed a shower and some breakfast at Scott's house and relaxed most of the morning. Jodi did a load of laundry and went for a long walk. I spent the morning writing this blog up. The plan for today is identical to last Friday. We are waiting for Scott to get off work, then we are heading back up to Squamish to do some climbing for the weekend. After having so much fun last weekend, Jodi and I really wanted to head back up there one more time before we left the area. Hopefully we can take some more pictures this time. Our plan is to come back Sunday night from Squamish, then monday hit the road again with the intention of reaching Smith Rocks in Oregon.