What a gorgeous day on the Olympic Peninsula. We are having perfect weather for hiking and exploring this beautiful part of the world. It was overcast and chilly when we woke up in Forks, a rather dingy has been kind of town. This building sort of sums up the place:

We stayed at the Forks Motel which is quite large, but a motel out of the past. They did have wifi, albeit a very slow connection. It was clean and adequate for our needs.

By the time we hit the road and headed toward Port Angeles, the sun was starting to come out. We came upon a bit of heaven on earth when we found Crescent Lake.

We went to the Storm King Ranger station and parked the car and took our first hike of the day to Marymere Falls. I loved these plants called Devil Rods. They have large leaves reaching to the sky, but the stem is all prickly, hence the name.

The falls trail was a little crowded, but worth the hike. We then took the loop to Crescent Lake Lodge where we fell in love again. We are hoping to come and stay in one of the cabins here next year. It is so beautiful.

We then drove in to Port Angeles and had a so so lunch before we drove up to Hurricane Ridge which has to be at the top of the world. We saw a riot of wildflowers.

Here is a view from the top of the world.

We took a short hike up through the meadow above the visitor’s center. You can see Victoria and Port Angeles and the bay. Here is another view from the top of the world.

I love Alpine meadows and their are many up on Hurricane Ridge, all studded with beautiful wild flowers.

Here I am enjoying my travels with Mr C.

Tonight we are staying at the Red Lion which is on the port and very near the ferry landing. We had a very scrumptious meal of dungeness crab cakes at the Bella Italia restaurant. We had a great Oregon Pinot Gris, from Adelsheim Winery.

We took a nice walk along the waterfront and took part in our weekly guilty pleasure, watching Big Love on HBO. Tomorrow, we are taking the ferry to Victoria for a couple of days and a more urban adventure.

You can see all of my photos from the National Park on my Flickr site.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.