(all pictures are high res, for low res click here)
For the Memorial Day
hike, Ellen and I decided to head out to
Olympic National Park to hike the
Cape Alava Loop Trail.
Before we even started, I knew it would be a good hike when I watched a
bald eagle folhigh us on the
Kingston-Edmonds ferry. It's a fairly
big time investment to get to the
trailhead
, so you should do your best to get an early start on the journey.
The trail is fairly easy as it is mostly over wooden boards
to limit
the impact caused by hikers. There trail takes you over a couple streams
, thru
tall grassy marshlands
and after
3 miles, ending at the
Pacific
Ocean
. Once
there, we found a pile of
boat fenders
and the ocean was not quite at high tide yet
. So we
left the trail
,
climbed up a
sea stack and ate some lunch. While eating lunch, we were amazed at the
amount of wildlife we noticed. Two steps onto the beach I found a snake, and
later we watched these
oyster catchers
taking a
bath and digging for clams. Finally, I spotted some
Harlequin Ducks and a sea
otter
. I've
also caught these guys on video as well, the ducks are in the foreground, and
the sea otter is in the background (you have to look closely!). This video and
all videos on this site take a long time to download (even on broadband), so
please be patient. Here is the video.
After watching the sea otter, we
began the
3 mile beach hike
to
sand point. Along the way
we found these
dungeness crabs
. Hiking
along, we found
petroglyphs
which we
think we created by ancestors of the Makah
Indian tribe. As we continued down the trail
we found
this natural arch
in a sea
stack. We were just about to Sand Point, when we found these Bald Eagles
hanging
out in the trees. I even was fortunate enough to catch a
video of them flying around. Make sure you listen closely, as you'll hear
them squawking. As we left, Ellen took a 360 degree view
of the shore (big picture!). We left Sand Point and began the 3 mile
trek back to the car, and found lots of old growth trees.
We made it back to the car and began the very long drive home, at least this time we took an awesome detour thru Lake Crescent. Thanks to the holiday, the ferries were all packed, so we stopped for some damn good food at Gordy's Pizza and Pasta in Port Angeles and then headed to the Bainbridge Island Ferry.
This was a damn good trip, and I love hiking on the coast. If you have a lot of time to spare, I HIGHLY recommend trying this trail out.
