9/3/21 - On the move today further out on the Olympic Peninsula to the town of Seklu and a fishing camp-Anglers Hideaway. The camp is true to it name except its up a pretty steep hill to the water and no view of the harbor. Oh well. The folks here are very nice and one of the campers gave us a Holsu Salmon they caught today for our dinner. Tailgate cooking was in order tonight to take advantage of the generous offer.

Our main goal to travel to this area was to hike the Ozette Lake area of Olympic NP which is along the tip of Washington State/Pacific Ocean and reach the most western point in the continental US. Mission accomplished! 

The trail was a series of boardwalks and travel through an old growth forest out to the unspoiled coastline. Wendy's original goal was to hike the 9.2 mile loop (I told her you got to be kidding me, 9 miles!), which included a 3 mile hike along the beach. Well we were not prepared for the rough terrain and only got about a 1/2 mile along the beach. See pics below. All toll we ended hiking 8 miles which was enough given the lateness in the day and tidal change. 

Flowers along the hike (Gentiana sceptrum)

Wendy and Janet standing on the most western point in the continental US

Here is a pic of the rock they are standing on to make it official.

Views from the beach

Huge trees down across the beach made it difficult at best to cross.

 9/2/21 - Hurricane Ridge deep into Olympic NP was on the agenda today.This section of the park was closed until yesterday when the police finally captured and man on the loose with a gun. The naming of the ridge is based on hurricane strength winds upwards of a 75+ miles per hour off of the Pacific, thus the name. The 17 mile road cut into the mountain was quite the engineering feet traversing cliffs and 3 tunnels to get to the Hurricane Visitor Center at 5,200 feet. 

The beauty of this area is just amazing.Our hike today was about 6 miles, 500 ft elevation gain over 3 miles to 6,000 feet. The mountain ridges, glaciers hundreds of feet deep and a mile or better across the Mt Olympus 7,500 summit was the highlight of the day.

Views from the Visitor center

 Lunch spot was awesome!

54 degrees up the mountain. Great hiking weather

Lunch deer

 The hike up

Just about to the top of the hike

Made it!!

Eight point buck at 6,000 feet

View of Port Angeles harbor from our high vista

Back at the Visitor Center

We broke out Mark's spotting scope for some amazing pics of the glaciers roughly 16 miles away.

Here is the picture without the spotting scope

Here is the same pic using the scope

 9/1/21 - Another beautiful day in Olympic NP. We hit the trails for a nice hike to Soleduck Creek area where we stopped at a salmon "ladder". Early in the morning the salmon were in a deep pool, but when we returned in the afternoon they were attempting to jump the waterfalls. So interesting to watch as they struggled against a pretty stiff current, the height of the falls and rocks.

Needless to say they are lots of old growth western cedar trees in the NP. This one was 100+ feet tall and 25 ft+/- in circumference

2 mile hike to Soleduck Falls, a triple waterfall. I would imagine in the Spring it is even more spectacular.

Next up was of course another waterfall, this time in Elwha Valley

Our day ended with a tour of the Port Angeles waterfront with a view of Olympic mountain range in the background

Very interesting (I thought) pic of a turn of the century "Scuffy" the Tugboat in dry dock

Port Angeles Laurel Street murals. The one below was a 3D mural of a turn of the century Ferry that serviced the port.

Fountain area and two sided mural just up the street.