Olympic National Park – Mora and Hoh Rain Forest

My day started early. I was at the beach at 7:30 am to hike the mile plus out to Hole in the Wall Beach to be ready for low tide at roughly 9:00 am. Hiking in sand is much harder then one would think. As much as I hate hiking in snow, I think I hate hiking in sand more.


I wasn’t exactly sure how to tell when I had arrived at Hole in the Wall Beach, but it was fairly obvious when I got there.

From there I explored the many tide pools. The starfish and anemones were really cool.

After the tide started to come back up I headed up to the Hoh Rain Forest. This was a really cool place even if it did look very similar to Mount Rainier without the Mountain and slightly different plants. I hiked the two tourist trail: Hall of Mosses and Spruce Nature Trail. Both trails gave me a good overview of the rainforest and its ecosystem. Though I did have to put up with annoying tourists.

Day 54 (June 29, 2010)– Olympic National Park – Hurricane Ridge, Crescent Lake, Sol Duc

Olympic National Park is amazing. I have a book on the National Parks of the United States, and it outlines ways to visit the park if you only have a few days. Today I was driving the Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and Sol Duc path. I woke up this morning and I had picked a pretty cool place to sleep. From the campground, I drove up to Hurricane Ridge in hope in seeing Mount Olympic.

But alas, the mountain was clouded over. From Hurricane I drove toward Sol Duc. On the way I stopped Crescent Lake. Crescent Lake has a cool Indian story attached to it. The legend states the Mount Storm King, angered at the fighting between the Quileute and Clallam Indians, threw a boulder, killing the combatants and splitting the lake in two.

At Crecent Lake, I hiked to Marymere Falls.

After that hike, I drove up to Sol Duc and hiked a 6 mile loop called Lover’s Lane. This loop is named Lover’s Lane because if you are there at the right time you can see salmon mating. I was visiting at the wrong time. This trail also passes Sol Duc Falls.

 

My original park plan had me camping in the Hoh Rain Forest and then going to the beach in the afternoon. But low tide was in the morning, so I camped at Mora Campground, and ate dinner by the beach and watched the sunset. It was suppose to be a clear day, and I was hoping to see the green flash but no, and the I was hoping for a nice sunset but alas I go neither.

Day 53 (June 28, 2010)– Server Leaving and MAST Class

Ok, so this morning my plans were completely turned upside down. One of the servers quit this morning. This means that we no longer have to many bussers, so I don’t need to take the MAST class. I am not sure how one server quitting means we no longer have too many bussers, but apparently it does. My plan to go to Olympic hasn’t changed; I just no longer need to rush out after work and drive.

Well later in the day, Wes (my boss’s boss) wants to serve whenever possible so he told me to take the class. So my original plan was back on. I left work and drove to the class and made it with about 3 mins. to spare.

In the course of the 3 hour MAST class, I can summarize it in the following three points.

1. Do not serve visibly drunk people.
2. Check I.D.s (Do not serve minors)
3. People are not responsible for their actions while drinking.

After the class I drove to Olympic National Park, where I was planning on camping in the Heart O'the Hills.  But I got there are midnight so I just slept in my car.