Tues Morning in Olympic National Park: Crescent Lake, Salmon Cascades, Sol Duc Falls

Today was a fanstastic day! I planned my route last night, and pretty much stuck to it. My ending point changed, since it got late and I discovered an open campground on the coast, so I didn't have to drive all the way to Olympia tonight.

Here was my plan for the day:

When I started this morning, the weather didn't look as good as yesterday, but it cleared up later and became a perfect day to be outdoors!

The weather can change quickly around here, and by the time I passed Crescent Lake on my way to the Salmon Cascades, the fog was lifting and blue sky was starting to poke throught he clouds.

The salmon were jumping at Salmon Cascades on the Sol Duc river, and I watched at least a dozen salmon working their way up the cascade.

 I took some videos, and here are a couple of short video clips (Note: the video clips don't seem to be working... I'll have to figure it out later):

The first photo, below, was taken down river from the cascades. The river narrows at the cascades, so it is a good spot for watching fish jump, as evidenced by the onlookers. The second photo, below, was taken above the cascades. I looked for fish swimming upstream after their monumental trip up the cascades, but I didn't see any in the water.

The Sol Duc Falls trail is at the end of the road. The sun rays showing through the trees caught my eye.

The Sol Duc trail is nothing short of magical. That is the word that kept coming to mind as I hiked the trail. There is so much beauty and variety along the trail that I could have spent all afternoon there. The warning sign didn't dissuade me, since there were several other hikers on the trail.

The ground is moist, and there is an assortment of mushrooms and fungi growing on the ground and trees.

These conch mushrooms are interesting. Conch mushrooms aren't unusual, but I hadn't seen them quite this shape before.

Below are a few other mushrooms that caught my eye.

These look like decaying lettuce leaves with small nuts on them. I saw them in quite a few places.

The moss covered trees and rocks are magical looking.

Seeing the multi-pronged Sol Duc Falls waterfall was worth the hike.

Tree roots don't have to go deep to find moisture around here, and many were poking up along the trail.

Many of the trees are quite tall, and it is not uncommon to see cavities among the trees and stumps that make good hiding places for animals.

This blog entry is already getting quite long, so I'll write about the rest of the day's adventures in a separate blog entry.