Giant's Graveyard with Ian

This past Sunday Ian and I headed up to the Olympic National Park to Third Beach to go check out Giant's Graveyard. We gambled on good weather, and partly won/partly lost. Sunday was nice, but ended up getting cloudy right as the sun was setting, so no great photos for me (boo!).

On the plus side, Ian and I had a phenomenally great time. I couldn't be more proud of Ian on this trip. He carried his backpack and didn't complain ONCE! In fact, he was super-chipper the entire walk in. While we didn't have a bunch of elevation to gain or lose, we did have to scramble up and over some steep headlands which involved using ropes to assist with the climbs and descents. Again, Ian did fantastic!

Once we got to our beach and camp site, Ian helped me to set up the tent and get everything situated. I think the views we had were pretty stunning.

We did a bit of exploring while the tide was out, which allowed Ian to do some "rock" climbing. Or as he puts it, working on his climbing mojo. ;-)   We got back to our campsite in time for a nice dinner, and then play time. Ian enjoyed learning to skip some rocks (he finally made some skip!) and playing in the sand.

Once Ian had had enough of skipping stones, while he was playing in the sand with his stick, I got the fire going. It was nice to just sit and relax, and enjoy some downtime.

We got rained on a bit last night, which means we didn't get to stargaze at all. Ian was really looking forward to that, but it obviously didn't pan out. We got up good and early for breakfast and packed up our stuff to head out. If you look closely in the photo below, at roughly the right third, you'll see Ian making his way up the headland. That was the smallest one, too!

Along the way we got to see a whale baleen and some sea otters on the beach and then again in the water - which was an instant hit with Ian (okay, me too); aside from a frog and numerous birds the otters were the only wildlife we saw.

Don't judge the photo below too harshly, this is a rough edit (since I won't have time to work on it for a bit). But this was the only sunset color we had, and it shows you Giant's Graveyard all spread out before you.

This was most likely my final trip to the Olympic coast in the short term, which makes me a bit sad. It is rugged, remote, and beautiful. I've enjoyed exploring the Olympics. There is still a bunch that I never got to see, but that will have to wait for another day, I suppose. Cheers,

Marc

Royal Basin, Olympic National Park

This past weekend Catherine, Nancy, and the kids took a trip to Oregon for a quilt show. I made my way to the Olympic National Park (once again), this time to the beautiful northeast corner - Royal Basin.

Royal Basin requires a reservation that can only be made up to 30 days in advance. Sites go fast as this is a very popular part of the park. It is rugged, remote, drop dead gorgeous, and relatively easy to get to. Well, the trailhead anyways.

Its a seven mile hike almost entirely uphill the entire way with the steepest parts right at the end before you make the Royal Lake basin. I went with some friends from work, and it took us almost five hours to hike up. I had come down with a nasty cold on Friday which I'm sure held me back, but goodness that hike thoroughly beat me down (on the way out too)!

We got to our campsite ahead of the horde, so we had the pick for the second best spot around the lake. We set up camp and I took a nice little nap. We then hiked around a bit to explore the place, to include some meadows which were not yet a peak color, and a big waterfall. Then it was back to camp for some dinner. After that I wandered some more for some sunset photos, but due to the towering mountains all around us I didn't really get anything good.

So it was off to bed for an early sunrise (again, nothing great photographically). It was very peaceful up there, I was the only one really wandering about at that hour, but with the mist/fog rising off of the lake (second photo from the top) and the resident fearless deer wandering around with me, it was a nice time.

This weekend Christina comes in and we will all head to Sequim for the Lavender Festival. I'll be sure to swing by Hurricane Ridge and check out the wildflowers too, but I'm looking forward to this trip. Have a wonderful day everybody!

Marc

Rialto and Second Beach, Camping in the Olympic National Park

After my last camping trip a couple of weeks ago to Mt. Rainier, I promised the kids that we'd go camping after our Disney Vacation. That weekend was this past weekend. Some people would call us me crazy for taking the kids camping in a rainforest during the rainy season in late October. You'd be right.

Luckily, I came prepared. Our first day we drove past Forks, Washington out to Mora at Rialto Beach on the Pacific Ocean. We set up our campsite, which consisted of our 10x10 canopy to cover the tent, as well as a ground cloth to go underneath the tent. Then the tent with a rainfly. Even with all that, it was still a bit damp. The tent was small enough for me, Ian, and Leah that it stayed cozy the whole night. It was definitely warmer than the first night that Ian and I spent here much earlier this year.

We tried to make it out to Hole in the Wall, about a mile north of the parking lot at Rialto Beach. The river that Ian and I log walked and jumped over earlier this year had completely re-routed itself. It looks like a massive storm shoved a ton of trees and sand up onto the beach causing the river to move. I couldn't find any way to cross, and Leah didn't want me to take my shoes off to carry her across the river. So we got skunked.

The next morning, after a fun breakfast of hot cocoa and pancakes, we made our way to Second Beach just south of La Push. It was a fairly easy walk through the forest and then down to the beach. The beach itself was very pretty, with the various sea stacks making up "Giant's Graveyard".

Finally, during the walk in, we passed this giant tree. The exposure was pretty tough, so I've juiced it up a bit so you can see it better (I hope) in photoshop. The kids spontaneously shouted about the Whomping Willow as we came upon it, and asked if I would take their photo next to it. Luckily this particular tree was neither a willow, nor whomping. So this one is for all you Harry Potter fans!

Cheers,

Marc

The Enchanted Valley, Olympic National Park

This past weekend I took a much anticipated trip to the Enchanted Valley in the Quinault Rainforest in the Olympic National Park. It is in a remote corner and requires a bit of effort to get to, both driving and walking. I drove in Friday afternoon and got a bit of a later start than I wanted, but I still had plenty of time to make it to the halfway point and set up my camp for the evening. 

I briefly considered setting up camp here, at Pony Bridge, which is less than a quarter of the way to the Enchanted Valley. But since there was plenty of daylight left, I pushed the extra 3-4 miles to O'Neill Camp.

I haven't seen a proper thunderstorm in well over a year, since we don't really get thunderstorms here in the Olympia area. But Friday night I was awakened to some lightning and thunder. Luckily, I stayed dry. The sun came out early Saturday morning, which gave me a chance to dry out the tent while I enjoyed my coffee and packed up my camp. 

I headed out for the Enchanted Valley, another 6-7 mile hike from O'Neill Camp where I spent the night. Along the way I encountered this massive tree trunk. The trail runs right by it, so it is hard to miss. It had to have been one tall tree!

I finally made it to the Enchanted Valley a bit before 1 in the afternoon which was a touch later than I had hoped. That, and the fact that a landslide with high snow-melt river run off at a river crossing prevented me from walking up the Anderson Pass. Well, those couple of reasons and the fact that I don't own crampons, an ice ax, or possess mountaineering skills since the pass is still under snow!

So I decided to explore the Enchanted Valley a bit in my free time. There is a chalet there that works as the Ranger Station during the summers. The Ranger that works there has to pinch themselves daily that he/she gets to call this place "home" while they "work". The walls of the valley are pretty sheer, with waterfalls all over the place, Shrek and Fiona would feel right at home here.

I dipped my feet after my climb towards Anderson Pass in this glacier-melt river (East Fork of the Quinault River). COLD does not begin to describe it! Refreshing doesn't either, but I guess invigorating does.

Have a wonderful day everybody! I'm planning a trip to the northern part of the Olympic Park again this weekend, just in time for the Lavender Festival in Sequim. I'm planning on making a dash to Sol Duc, riding my bike from Hurricane Ridge to Obstruction Point (or as far as I can because the road hasn't opened from all the snow just yet), and hopefully making it up to Deer Park. That's a lot of places to see, so I'll probably have to scale that back a bit. I'll post photos next week as I have time. I hope you've enjoyed these photos, they were fun to take.

Marc

Camping with Ian

What a way to bring in the new camping season! Ian had been asking to go camping for a while. Since it is Spring Break, I figured we'd head up the coast a bit to get in a little bit of the beach and a bit of the rainforest. 

We lucked out weather-wise. Late March/early April is not known for it's pleasant weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and this was no different. But we still got lucky. We passed through a bit of snow on the way up, then rain on and off. When we got to the Mora campground, it was still raining, though not that hard. Ian and I set up our tent and then hopped back in the car for the short drive to Rialto Beach.

As you can see, the seas were angry that day, my friend. 

Ian loved watching the waves curl and break into the shoreline, as well as watching the water crash over some off-shore rocks. We walked a mile and a half up the beach to Hole in the Wall, which you can see in the left right-hand side of this photo below. When we first got there it was raining pretty hard. We waited about 5-10 minutes for it to slow down, and then not only did it stop raining, but the sun came out!

There was no sand, just tiny pebbles, which was actually pretty tiring. Here you can see Ian taking a break as we're headed back down the beach to the car.

The tide was out, which was a good thing. It had carried this massive tree pretty far up the beach. It wouldn't be fun to be here during a storm at high-tide!

We got back to our campsite, still no rain. We cooked and ate most of dinner before it started to rain again. It rained hard at night and was cold. I'm guessing in the mid-high 30's - but we managed to stay both dry and warm (yeah!!). We woke up, made pancakes,  and drove towards home making stops at the Hoh and Quinault rainforests in the Olympic National Park. Ian's favorite part were the many Roosevelt elk we saw just strolling down the road (Hoh). My favorite part was this unnamed waterfall that marks the boundary of the Olympic National Park and Forest in Quinault.

We're getting ready for a mini-Spring Break family vacation. Oregon of all places. Hopefully it is warmer and drier than it has been here. Guess it can't get wetter. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Marc

Photo Redux

Well, I said way back when that I'd post more photos from my trips to the Olympic National Park. I didn't mean for this to take so long, but there were hundreds of photos to weed out, then several were prettied up in photoshop and/or lightroom.

What I'm presenting here is just a couple of my favorites. You'll have to visit if you want to see the rest...

This first photo was from my trip to Point of the Arches at Shi Shi beach near the far northwestern edge of Washington. This was taken at sunrise on my walk back to the car.

This next photo is from the meadow of the mountain goons. I mean goats. If you look hard, you can see my camping spot where I didn't sleep, on those rocks in the middle right of the photo.

And this last one is a photo of the alpenglow from my camping spot over Lake of the Angels.

We've been very busy here at Fam Skinner (that's Deutsche!). Ian has started the second grade, and Leah has started Kindergarten. And now Catherine has landed a part-time job teaching cooking in Olympia. My work has been crazy busy, and I've just started back into school for my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree!

You know what they say, a rolling stone gathers no moss...

Have a wonderful day everybody. I'll try to prod Catherine into uploading some photos of the kids getting on the school bus this weekend. If only things would slow down, sheesh!

Tschuss,

Marc

Attack of the (Deranged Killer Mutant) Mountain Goats

I've been wanting to visit either Upper Lena Lake or Lake of the Angels in the Olympic National Park for some time now. On very short notice, I arranged to make the trip this past weekend. I would have stayed home had I known all of the shenanigans that followed . . .

I brought my bike so that I could ride from a road wash-out a mile or so to the trailhead. Once I arrived I discovered that the tube had blown (shredded is more like it), so I had to walk to the trailhead. No big deal.

Immediately upon starting the trail, I headed uphill. That wouldn't change for the next 4 miles as I gained almost 4000 feet in elevation. It was like a 4 mile/4 hour stairmaster carrying a 50 pound backpack! About halfway up, I encountered a guy heading down and we exchanged notes. I was already a sweaty mess and remarked about what a tough climb this had been. He told me that there were a couple of "headwalls" to get through prior to arriving at Lake of the Angels. Seems "headwall" is a hiker euphemism for "cliff". Going up wasn't the hard part on those headwalls - it was the going down that was scary!

I lost the trail at a couple of places, but really lost maybe only 5 minutes total. The trail wasn't well marked, and with all the stream crossings and alternate campsites/trails, I got on the wrong one a time or two. Again, no big deal.

I slogged my way up the second headwall, after crossing and climbing up a decent snowfield first. Once I got to the Lake of the Angels I was greeted by the resident herd of mountain goats. Those goats have absolutely no fear of human beings, and pretty much view us as walking salt licks. This, combined with a forewarning about their aggressiveness here, and the fact that a hiker was killed by a mountain goat in the Olympic National Park had me a bit nervous.

Those goats followed me around everywhere and kept me up literally all night long. I didn't realize until the next morning that those beggars were really thieves - they took my hat!! I hope that goat has a nasty stomach ache from eating my hat.

Anyways, the location was stunning. I saw an amazing sunset, watched the stars come out and light up the sky. It was so clear there I think I saw every star that is visible to the naked eye. Then I got to watch a pretty sunrise. I started my walk out pretty early, since I didn't want to share my breakfast with the goats (like I almost did with dinner). At the bottom of the first headwall, my left foot slipped, my knee buckled, and I pinwheeled down the slope. To make matters worse, the snowfield that I wrote about earlier was at the bottom of my fall (only about 6 feet or so). Which means I got to slide a bit downhill before coming to rest. I'm super lucky I didn't sprain my knee or ankle on that tumble. There were a couple of others on the way down (like I said, it was steep!) but nothing major.

All in all, I enjoyed Lake of the Angels. It was a beautiful alpine meadow and lake ringed in by mountains. I won't be going back though - those goats made the time there thoroughly unenjoyable. I'll look for another lake and alpine meadow that doesn't have a resident goat population!

Have a great day out there everybody. And sleep well, I know I will!

What a day!

Yesterday was a very big, very long day for us! I have been dying to go the Olympic beaches/Olympic National Park for some exploring for some time now. Since this weekend was shaping up beautifully, Catherine and the kids indulged me (yeah!!).

We had thought about driving there on Friday and camping, but since we were late to the party there were no reservations available. So we decided to just make the long drive (2 1/2 hours, maybe longer) in the early morning since there was a Ranger-led tidal pool walk just north of Kalaloch. I loaded up the car the night before, laid out all of our clothes, and then woke everyone up at 4 am.

We were on the road shortly after 4:30, and had the road pretty much to ourselves. Everyone else slept most of the way, which is what we had planned. We arrived at the meeting place for the beach/tidal pool walk with about 10-15 minutes to spare. This was the beach where we explored, below:

The Ranger that gave our walk and talk was informative and a bit fun. The kids absolutely loved walking on the beach, exploring the tidal pools, drawing in the sand, getting their feet wet - the list could go on. The big kids did, too. Though the sun, fresh air, nice breeze, and sounds of the surf were pretty awesome too.

After the walk on Beach 4, we made our way a bit to the north to Ruby Beach. I had read that there were some good sea stacks there. There were some, just not as many as I had hoped. There was a nice pond and river leading into the ocean with this huge sea stack standing sentinel.

The beaches were strewn with HUGE logs that get washed out from the rain forests upstream. They get thrown into the Pacific and tumbled about, eventually washing up on the shoreline. We generally didn't play much on the logs since we were more concerned with the tidal pools and the surf, but towards the end we did explore the upper portions of the beach a bit.

All this fun took us up to about lunch. For all you Twilight fans (no, I'm NOT a fan. I still don't understand why Catherine wanted to punish me by watching one of the movies together . . . but I digress ;) ) we made our way to Forks where we had a nice lunch. From there we headed back in the direction of home, with a detour to the Hoh Rain Forest in the Olympic National Park.

It was a nice walk through the rain forest (over 130 inches of rain per year - which sounds impressive, but the mountains have had over 900 inches of snow this past winter, which is still lingering!!!), but it was lacking in rain. I've read that it is best to visit in time of rain/fog for the right atmosphere, which I'm inclined to believe.

Have a happy 4th of July everybody. I'll be working at the hospital (blah). There was a last minute change to the duty roster, and guess who got picked! Oh well, I'll have the 5th off instead. Cheers!

Marc

Staircase at Olympic National Park

I think I may be in love with Washington...

We live just an hour and a half from Olympic National Park, about an hour from Rainier National Park, an hour to an hour and a half from Mt. St. Helens - the list goes on. Almost too many choices. Almost. So today we decided to make the quick trip to Staircase, at the southeastern edge of Olympic National Park.

We walked about a mile down the Skokomish Falls Loop Trail which followed the river. It was much like the walk in Idaho we did last weekend - just what the doctor ordered. Below is the trail we followed.

Unfortunately, the bridge at the far point over the river was washed out, so we turned around and enjoyed the walk back.

Ian and Leah had a good time. I think they were as entranced with the river as I was.

Finally, on the way out headed to a late lunch, we passed this small pullout of Lake Cushman, about 10 minutes outside of Hoodsport.

We had a nice day, hopefully everyone out there has too. Cheers!

Marc