The ranger lady told us we weren't going to get too low a tide today so the rock pools wouldn't be very accessible, but we took a fabulous walk along the beach seeing the mist rising out of the sea blowing along the sands where the sanderlings and sand pipers ran up and down the beach avoiding the breaking surf. Seagulls grouped in flocks as the sea receded and we walked along the log strewn shores. Such a romantic start to the day!
We drove up the coast and stopped at the big cedar, which was really very large! And then further up to Rialto beach which was really pretty. Unlike the beach next to Kalaloch which had been very nice fine sand this was quite cobbly with occasional dark sand from the basalt outcrops. Again there were logs all washed up at the back of the beach, but by this time we were more interested in finding the tide pools with the promise of anemones and star fish. We weren't disappointed, altho the tide wasn't very low we could still get close enough to stick our noses into the pools and see some of the incredible greens of the anemones and purple and oranges of the star fishes. We decided to dash back to Beach 4 where we found yet more tide pools and lots of barnacles and a great selection of star fish, fabulous. So many photos and several wet feet episodes as we got a little too close to the now incoming tide! Well worth it though!
By the time we'd walked over all the cliffs and taken a million photos it was nearly 3...definitely time to get going up to the Hoh rain forest, it was hard dragging ourselves away from the blue blue sky and sweeping beaches where we could see some sort of scoup diving in the surf zone, but the mountains were calling.
We flashed our NP frequent flyer badge and were waived into the park free of charge, the rain forest that receives something like 12ft of rainfall per year just around the corner. We saw a cafe called the hard rain cafe instead of the hard rock cafe!
We did a little walk called the hall of mosses which was covered in lots of mosses, all hanging from the trees, both amazingly impressive. We saw a little red squirrel eating his 4hr while we were fearsomely nibbled by the mosquitos! Then we carried on to the xxxx walk it really was a great walk. About 5 mins after D said how quiet it was, but where are all the animals did we spot across the other side of the river a herd of Roosevelt Elk, fantastic, time for the long lenses and the binos and even a male with some large antlers! We were super pleased with seeing them...
We headed back for the car to get to our final destination of the day, Lake Crescent lodge. We got in the car and a few minutes down the road, some cars stopped to observed some elk munching on the side of the road. We did the same and parked the car nearby observing from the other side of the road at a safe distance. D took some nice shots making his famous moose impression!! Then the elk decided to cross the road and we didn't want to scare him of so we stayed quietly in the car. He decided to munch literally right in front of the car. S not being the best with animals at such close quarters was quite (actually very) scared and hid behind the dashboard, D kept saying "don't to look up". I glanced a few times and didn't like what i saw..his huge antlers right in front of the windscreen! The ranger came to our rescue and the damn elk would not move whatsoever even with the flashing lights and the sounds...unbelievable. We finally managed to leave and i was quite happy about that!! We made it back quite late at the crescent lodge so we settled quickly and headed for a well deserved dinner overlooking the lake. Time to rest to be ready for another day of adventure tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment