(no audio) (lively music) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (calm music) Welcome to the beautiful Olympic National Park, which is located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

This is one of the top 15 most visited national park in America.

And that's because it has some of the most diverse ecosystems in this country as well.

In this episode, I'm taking you on a four day road trip around the Olympic Peninsula, exploring the varied ecosystems of the national park and some of the most stunning scenery around it.

The park is categorized by four distinct ecological zones the mountains in the East, the iconic rain forest, the low end of lakes, rivers and waterfalls, and of course, the coastline.

If you're a serious hiker like me, one of the areas of the park that you will definitely want to explore are the mountains on the eastern side of Olympic National Park and into Olympic National Forest.

So right now, I'm actually going to start a hike up to Mount Townsend.

This is kind of on the north eastern corner of the park, and it's supposed to have spectacular views, not only of the mountain ranges, but on a clear day.

Mount Rainier.

Mount Townsend is within the national forest, which surrounds the park and adds an additional 600,000 plus acres to this protected area.

One of the really great things about this park is that the 101 actually circumnavigate the Olympic Peninsula and the national park.

So being able to explore this park is actually really easy.

You don't have to do any backtracking.

I'm actually going to be exploring the park basically counterclockwise from the northeast corner, which is where I am now, heading over to the northwest, then heading south and doing kind of the bottom part of the park.

I am a loving the scenery up here.

I'm about halfway.

And now the views of the mountain range here are absolutely spectacular.

As you can see, it's still a beautiful sunny day.

I was a little worried when I started the trail because I did see some clouds rolling in, but most of them are just rolling right off the tops of the mountains here.

It is absolutely stunning up here.

A little bit over a mile to go to reach the summit.

And a while that first two miles was pretty steep.

It doesn't really compare to the steepness of the North Cascades, which is where I was just a few weeks ago.

So, so far, so good.

I will see you guys at the top.

Much like the Cascades, A lot of the trails here in the Olympics are pretty steep.

This one has about 2500 feet of elevation gain.

Then just a few short miles.

So you will be climbing just from the start.

Now, getting to this trail also is on about 20 miles of dirt roads.

So it does take a little bit.

But one of the reasons I chose this trail was because the reviews that I read said few and far between as far as people.

And if you guys have been on this channel long, you know that I really enjoy being out here in nature pretty much to myself.

So if you're looking for a quieter trail, this is definitely one of those.

If you need more suggestions on trails, because I know I get asked this question a lot.

I use the app All Trails.

There are a lot of hiking apps.

But I've been using this one for a long time.

It's just the app that I like to go to.

They have reviews.

There are usually recent photos and if you have the pro version, you can also download those offline maps.

So the moment you step off the trail, your phone or your watch is going to tell you that you're off the route.

So it's a really good safety tool as well.

Just got to the summit here and just absolutely spectacular views from up here every direction.

You've got beautiful mountain ranges with the clouds rolling in the event at Seattle, off in the distance, Mount Rainier and the beautiful Puget Sound down below.

I am back at the trailhead here in my car.

What a fantastic hike that was.

Spectacular views just absolutely wonderful.

It took me about 5 hours to do this hike at a pretty steady pace.

So that should be a pretty good indication for any of you that are wanting to do this hike how long it's going to take.

From here, I headed to the town of Square Mile, one of the small communities on the northern side of the peninsula and a great place to catch the full moon (music) (music) (music) There are actually quite a few coffee shops in this town.

As you may know, this is one of the staples to by morning.

So found one called the Green Shadow Coffee and ahead of me, after a great breakfast sandwich, I was back in the car for the one hour drive to the Hurricane Ridge entrance station.

(music) Welcome to Hurricane Ridge.

Now, if you're looking for accessible trails or actually a lot of them up here on this ridgeline.

Couple of paved paths that you can take a couple of trails along the ridge line.

So it's a really great place if you're looking for some shorter and more accessible things to do for anyone in the family.

Now, this place is actually named Hurricane Ridge because it experiences some of the most extreme weather in this park.

Oftentimes, you will have super high wind gusts up here up to 75 miles an hour.

There is also in the wintertime, 30 feet of snow on average.

So there's actually a ski area up here as well.

Now, Hurricane Hill is just down behind me here.

That's one of the shorter and more popular hikes to do up here.

You can also do Queenie Ridge, which unfortunately right now is actually mostly closed.

There was a cougar attack up here just a few days ago, and they've closed kind of that whole section of the park that goes down to the campground where it happened.

But if you're looking for fantastic views, even if you don't want to hike or walk a lot, this is definitely a spot you need to come.

Cougar attacks in Washington are incredibly rare.

Habitat encroachment, however, is not.

And as we develop more and more of these areas, it's up to us as people to also create safe places for animals by not only recreating responsibly, but living responsibly when we're out and about in Cougar Country.

It's always a good idea to keep pets, unleash children within sight, and food and scented items stored on the Olympic Peninsula.

In particular, Cougars are suffering from both habitat encroachment and from the lack of wildlife corridors that are keeping Olympic Peninsula cougars genetically isolated.

No individual has been able to safely cross Interstate five and breed with other cougars in other parts of the state.

(music) (music) Now, one thing I love is driving dirt roads.

So if you're like me and you aren't afraid of some hairy driving, then drive down.

The Obstruction Point.

Road is a must.

Now you can access this right from the top of Hurricane Ridge.

This has been called Washington's scariest road and is Olympic National Park's highest elevation road.

It has narrow and steep drop offs in many places along the road, and you have to maneuver lots of switchbacks as you head up to its highest point called Obstruction Point, which sits at 6150 feet above sea level.

Good morning.

It is day three here in the Olympics.

My plan this morning was to show you some of the leaks and waterfalls in the lowlands here.

And I was on my way to Sol Duc waterfall, but passed by this lake this morning and is just glass like.

And it definitely calls for a swim.

(music) Could you find a better way to wake up than this right here?

You know, morning swims or something that remind me so much of growing up.

Actually, my dad's best friend, they had a house on the lake I grew up on.

And one of the rules at their house was that there was no pancakes until you went for a swim in the lake.

So every morning you would get up early.

You would put on your bathing suit.

And whether it was warm, cold or rainy, you would jump in the lake and go for a swim.

And it's moments like this just picture perfect crystal clear glass out here that just remind me so much of childhood.

And no matter what kind of day I'm having, you're going to get this a big giant smile.

(music) This area of the lakes and the lowlands have so many great trails.

Whether you want to do something through some of the big tall trees or you want to hike to a waterfall or just around the lake.

There's definitely a lot of options here, and it's hard to choose.

Right now I'm going to Sol Duc Waterfall.

This is one of the more popular trails in the park.

It's less than a mile, so pretty accessible for most people if you want to do something short.

And this is right near Soledad Lodge, which is actually one of the national park lodges.

They had some hot springs that you can swim in there.

And there's a campground as well.

Really nice place to stay here on the northern side of the park (music) where this area of Lakes and lowlands is certainly one of my favorites.

And it's super important to wildlife.

It's habitat for large species like deer, elk and cougar.

Dozens of species of bird and insect and many small mammals and its rivers are even home to salmon, which you may be able to spot in late fall, making their way up the river to spawn (music) (music) Right along the shores of Lake Crescent, you'll find any trailhead to Marymere Falls.

This is definitely one of the popular and short trails that you can do at just a mile and a half roundtrip.

The trail to Marymere Falls begins at the Storm King Ranger station on the shores of Lake Crescent and traverses less than a mile through old growth forests over the Barnes Creek and to a short loop that showcases the falls (music) (music) From the waterfalls I headed west and it wasn't long before I was back out of the car again because there are just so many beautiful places to pull over on this drive.

Just over my left here is actually the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Just across the channel is actually Vancouver Island, where I spent a week hiking just a couple of weeks ago.

So we haven't watched that video on my solo hike on the West Coast.

I'll definitely check it out.

But this area of water is known as the graveyard of the Pacific.

And where we are right now is actually called Shipwreck Point.

Lot of dangerous rocks and huge tidal shifts in this area.

But if you come up here, definitely take your time.

I love times like this where the fog is just sitting right on the beach.

It's just absolutely beautiful.

This part of Washington isn't just spectacular because of the national park.

It's the entire Olympic Peninsula that is full of absolutely beautiful places.

Stunning coastline, picture perfect forest.

So definitely don't just visit the national park.

Come and explore some of the peninsula as well.

Right now, I've actually gotten off the 101.

And I'm going west along the coastline here.

I'm in a place called Callum Bay right now, and I am heading to the farthest point west that I can go.

And you think you're going to love the views there?

We are back on the trail in a place called Neah Bay.

This is on the Makah tribal lands.

You do need a $20 recreation permit to come and experience the natural areas here.

But right now we're going to the most northwestern point in the contiguous USA.

(music) Cape Flattery borders the area where the Pacific Ocean meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It forms part of the Makah reservation and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

This region is richly endowed with a diverse array of marine species due to its coastal kelp beds, which provide a natural habitat for salmon, birds and marine mammals and is highly treasured for its forested lands and scenic views, including the Cape Flattery Lighthouse.

(music) Wow, this is gorgeous.

You won't want to forget your binoculars up here because there are so many birds, cormorants, puffins, hawks.

And if you're lucky, you can even spot from whales and sea lions out here as well.

Next up, definitely snack time.

It's about 3:30 I skipped lunch today, but when I came into Neah Bay and stopped at the visitor center to get my recreation pass, I asked where to eat in town and the woman told me to stop at Calvin's Crab house.

And that's where I'm heading next.

(music) (music) There's still a lot more of this day to go.

From the local tribal lands, I've actually outback in the car drove about an hour back along the 101 towards the southern coast.

And I am going to go to some of the southern beaches in just a second.

But I wanted to show you where I'm staying tonight because I'm glamping at a place called Mossquatch.

And this is a so this is my tent.

It's pretty nice.

(music) (music) (music) good morning from Mossquatch.

I haven't seen any sasquatch yet.

It was actually a really quiet night.

And I slept really well.

So this little glamping resort is in Forks, Washington.

And if you're a Twilight fan, you may recognize the name because that town from the movie Twilight is not a made up town.

It's actually.

This is it.

We're here right on the Olympic Peninsula here.

This town is really small, only about 3500 people, but it sits right on the southern side of the Olympic Peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and the Hoh rainforest.

And we're going to be doing a little bit of both of those things today.

I slept remarkably well last night, feeling really refreshed this morning.

I finished my coffee and then we'll hit the road.

(music) This area of the park gives visitors a neck craning views of the towering spruce and hemlock.

Many of them draped with mosses and lichens, making the canopy above look like something out of a fairy tale.

This area gets up to 12 feet of rainfall per year, and that's why it is able to stay this lush.

I've been to some other places like this around the world, like the Garajonay National Forest in the Canary Islands, but this is pretty unique for America.

And that's why so many people flock here.

This section of the park has just one main area by the visitor center, and it's from here that most of the little trails branch off from.

There are some short ones that are really family friendly, like the Hall of Mosses and the Spruce Nature Trail.

Right now I'm actually on the Hoh River Trail.

This is a long trail, 17 miles.

It's a great backpacking route.

But if you want to kind of get away from the crowds and just do a couple of miles of this is another great option, too, for backpackers.

This is a great trail where you can actually hike to a glacier, but you'll have to snag a permit first.

This habitat is extremely sensitive to drought as mosses, unlike ferns or true leaves, don't actually have the waxy cuticle of other plants that help them retain moisture.

Since mosses and lichens provide so much for this ecosystem, periods of dryness could have a long lasting and damaging effects to the entire rainforest.

(music) Now, if you really want to see this rainforest at its finest, you want to come here when it's a little bit cooler, when it's rainy and misty and there is fog through here.

Spring and fall are great times right now.

It is hot.

And that's not how this rainforest should really ever be.

But I've had six weeks of almost perfect weather between here in the PNW and Alaska, which means the climate is changing and hopefully these forests can withstand what's happening.

One thing I saw a lot of in this forest were these hollow areas underneath the trees called tree hollows.

I always thought they were formed from animals denning in the roots, but they're actually formed when a seedling takes root in the decaying log of an old tree.

As the new tree grows, the old log underneath rots away, leaving behind these hollow areas underneath.

Some of the most spectacular scenery here along the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park are the coastlines.

There is hundreds of miles of it on this peninsula, and it's all stunning.

Right now.

I'm at Ruby Beach, and one of the things I notice at almost all of the beaches here on the Olympic Peninsula is a lot of driftwood.

Now, this has been deposited here over decades and decades from things like blown down trees, from strong storms and even from the days there were glaciers here.

There's even been or barge logs that have come through here that have left a lot of trees.

So be careful where you walk, because it is pretty treacherous getting around.

But it certainly makes the views striking.

(music) (music) Just look at how beautiful this is.

Welcome, everybody, to the shoreline of Lake Quinault.

This is what makes this park so special.

You have so much variety from lake and ocean coastline to mountains and waterfalls and rivers.

It is stunning.

I have so enjoyed this trip around the Olympic Peninsula.

This is actually my last stop here at Lake Quinault.

But it certainly does not have to be yours.

There is a fantastic lodge on this lake called Quinault Lodge.

There are lots of things to do here, and this is definitely one of the lesser visited parts of the park.

So a lot fewer crowds when you're going to find out a lot of the other lakes and busy areas that we've seen already on this trip.

I'm going to enjoy the next couple of hours of sunshine here, maybe go for one last swim and the Olympics.

But I will see you guys in the next adventure.

As always, I'm Alice Ford.

Never stop exploring now.

It's time to get these shoes off.

Get in the water.

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