Around Katie's Barn

We're here in Chimacum, WA  (far right under printing), primarily to visit Olympic National Park. 

Our first visit (see Olympic blog) our friends and us rode the bikes (aka motorcycles) along the red road (top of the map to the left) to the first green box, the Park Visitor Center, then down to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center (green box under Park VC).  On the second visit Duane and I drove the red road along the right side of the map to the bottom (the same route our friends and we rode the bikes the day before--Saturday Ride blog) then up to the green box which is Staircase for a hike along the north fork of the Skokomish River (Sunday Hike blog).  Today Duane drove Brock, Leola and me to the Hoh Rain Forest (green box in the middle of the map).  This is not too far from Hurricane Ridge, but we couldn't get to Hoh from there.  We again drove the red line across the top, but went all the way to the left, down, then to the right in a 3/4 circle.  (In Ohio when we go around-about to get someplace, we say you can't get there from here, you have to go around Katie's barn.)   

 As we rode through Port Angeles, we encountered heavy fog

but were relieved to find that we quickly left it behind.  The rest of the day the weather was perfect.

We stopped for a stretch and pictures at Lake Crescent, just past Lake Sutherland (both at green box middle top of map).

Here we learned that both lakes were formed by a giant glacier that filled the whole valley from 600' under the surface of the lake to over the top of some of the mountains.  Lake Sutherland was cut off from Lake Crescent by a landslide.

Lunch stop on the porch of the Hard Rain Cafe

then we joined the line into the park.  The parking lot was full, and as a car left a car was allowed to enter (one out-one in).  When told that the wait was approximately 1 1/2 hours, many people left.  We just kept yakking and inching forward.  

A mere 40 minutes later we were welcomed to the Hoh Visitor Center where we started our education with this info board. 

Inside we learned what makes a rain forest including the amount of rain,

the types of trees,

how those trees grow,

and what grows on the trees.

Armed with our new information we were ready to visit the rain forest.

To be continued.

Louise and Duane