Day 7 Recap

We drove pretty much all day this day, but it didn’t seem like it. We headed around the Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula to see the only rain forest in North America, and then down to Portland. We drove from about 11:00 until after 10:00, and only stopped for about 1 1/2 hours total. But it still seemed like a short day. The drive around the sound has some great views and some nice, small towns to drive through. About half of the towns were named “Port” something–Port Orchard, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, etc. That gives you an idea of what the area is like.

One thing I noticed while heading toward the Olympic Mountains was that they were snowcapped even though none were over 8,000 feet tall. In Colorado, a mountain had to be at least 12,000 feet tall or so before it had snow on it, but in Washington it only needed to be 7,500 feet or so.

The forests were like nothing I’d seen before. I’ve seen thick forests before, but nothing this tall or this green. There were ferns and mosses growing everywhere that trees did not take up, and the trees took up plenty of room. Most of the older trees were at least 150-feet tall, with many going over 200 feet. Within the park was a huge lake that we drove by. Because no algae can grow in the cold water, the water was deep blue and crystal clear through the entire lake. The area was all apparently interesting enough to make the drive seem short, but it was kind of repetetive–there’s not a whole lot more that I can say about it.

The strangest thing happened this day: We have been at least sprinkled on every single day on the trip so far…every day except the day we visited the rain forest. Not a drop of rain fell on us for the first time all trip, and we spent half the day in an area that gets 120-140 inches of rain per year. It rained in the semi-deserts of Denver and Colorado Springs but not in the rain forest. What are the odds of that?

On the way south, the road ran by the Pacific Ocean. The sun was hanging over it, making the water incredibly bright. There was a small island off coast, but other than that nothing as far as we could see. We were looking across 10,000 miles of water… It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen anyway.

From there we headed to Portland. Near Olympia, we could see Mt. Rainier in the distance. It looked ghost-like, with just the snow-cap visible in the pink sky of twilight. We tried to take pictures but none of them actually show what we saw. I wish we could show you what we saw because that was possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen so far. [EDIT: One of the pictures actually turned out, although not well.]

Our hotel in Portland is right downtown, making it easy to get anywhere if we actually choose to do so. We’re spending day 8 getting caught up on anything we need–this blog, laundry, sleep, etc. We’ll see if we actually do anything in Portland.

Advertisement