Olympic National Park was another place where once I saw photos of it, I just had to go. My main aspirations involved the HOH rainforest that lies within the park. The moss covered, lush green trees looked like something straight out of the fairytale and I had to see it! I asked my friend Annie, who also loves hiking and exploring if she would ever be interested in going, she of course said yes. Annie and I have been best friends since preschool and our moms are best friends as well. Our mothers are polar opposites of Annie and I and are girly girls who love to shop and couldn’t imagine sleeping in a tent or hiking around the forest.

They really wanted to go on a shopping trip to Seattle and once hearing this, I suggested we all go and Annie and I venture through the Olympic National Park for a few days and then spend a few days in Seattle with them afterwards! So we flew into Seattle, and Annie and I rented a car and took off for the park. The drive from Seattle through the park was filled with dreary, rainy weather, but amazing foggy, mountain views. I couldn’t believe all the fog in the mountains. We arrived right outside the HOH rainforest very late that evening and slept right outside Ruby Beach in the Kalaloch campground in our car. The next morning we woke up early and headed straight to the HOH rainforest. The rainforest was just as beautiful in person as I could’ve imagined. It was raining the entire time we were there, but that’s the pacific northwest for you. The rainforest was such a lush green and there was moss covering everything giving the rainforest a beautiful lime green and yellow color.

After the HOH rainforest, which I might mention is unfortunately on a mile loop, we headed to see Ruby Beach. Ruby Beach was beautiful and had big rock islands randomly placed along the shoreline and in the water. After Ruby Beach we drove towards Forks, Washington which is where the Twilight movies were filmed. The drive was full of beautiful mountains views with so much fog, I only stopped one million times to take pictures. We headed to the Sol Duc Trail which was a beautiful PNW trail featuring woods and a giant wooden bridge that crosses a cascading stream below. After hiking that trail we slept in our car in the Heart O’ Hills campground.

In the morning we started our drive back towards Seattle. Since there aren’t any roads cutting through the park we had gone so far around the road looping around the park that it made more sense to continue on towards Seattle finishing the loop which required us to take a ferry to cross from Bainbridge Island back to Seattle. Bainbridge Island was quite possibly one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen. The entire town is practically on the water and is gorgeous. We took our car onto the ferry and crossed back to Seattle, which was cool seeing the Seattle skyline come into view.

 

Once back in Seattle, we went from rags to riches and got to stay in a beautiful penthouse overlooking downtown Seattle with our mothers and go shopping and out to eat in the Space Needle where I had one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I loved the overcast weather of the PNW and all the gloom, mountains, and fog. The area was so beautiful I couldn’t believe how pretty everything along side the road even was! My first trip to the PNW was everything I had thought it would be.