Olympic National Park -Lake Crescent (Day 1-2)

After leaving Elwha, I arrived at Lake Crescent Lodge. This is where some ladies at the retreat suggested I stay, and I'm SO glad I did! It was a beautiful spot. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Lake McDonald in Glacier, and it had a similar feel to Lake McDonald Lodge. I checked in and found that I actually had a little cabin for the night. It was GREAT! I even had my own little porch with chairs -one of them was a rocking chair -that looked right out onto the lake! I had made dinner reservations, so while I waited for that, I walked along the shoreline for a bit. I met a couple from Portland and ended up talking for quite a while to a guy that had just retired after 24 years in the Army. He took a little trip to the area as a sort of retirement celebration. He and his family have lived all over, and it was fun to compare stories of places we've each seen. He's the only other person I've met who's been to the top of the Seoul Tower in Korea, and it was fun to swap stories!

I'm SO glad I had made reservations for dinner, because it was FABULOUS! I have been waiting and waiting for a really good salmon dinner since I moved to WA, and decided this was the place. Well, I sure wasn't disappointed! Mmmmm..... my mouth is still watering! I highly recommend staying in this lodge sometime, but if you can't do that, at least eat a meal on your way through!

The next morning turned out to be pretty cloudy and rainy. I had been planning that during the day I would get to the rainforest, but I wanted to be sure that I wouldn't miss out on seeing stuff if a storm rolled in. You see, Olympic National Park is actually three parks in one. There's the mountains, the rainforest, and the ocean that are all distinct areas within the park. I talked to someone at the desk and found out that the trails right around Lake Crescent looked just like the trails I'd find in the more famous area, the Hoh Rainforest. So, I took some time to walk around in the rain, which turned out to be a good thing. I did get to the Hoh forest later on, but it was raining HARD, and was getting really windy. It turns out that only one of my pictures turned out because of all the raindrops in the way or the picture was blurry because I couldn't hold the camera straight! So, I'm glad I spent some time in the forest before I left Lake Crescent!