Olympic National Park, Day 1 (Lake Quinault, Quinault Rainforest and Kalaloch)

This was one of our longest days as we started in Rainier and traveled all the way to the coast. We woke up early and decided to try to catch a sunrise at Reflection Lake before we left:

From Reflection Lake, we drove back to that viewpoint from the other day, to find it completely fog bound, but also magnificent in the sunrise:

The fog starting to lift a little here

From Rainier, we drove several hours to Lake Quinault, which is the very start of the Olympic area. We stopped at the historic Lake Quinault Lodge for brunch on their back patio:

We were tipped off to look for this cool rain gauge on the back deck

Brunch with a view

After brunch we walked down to the beach for a better view, but it started sprinkling after a few minutes

From the Lodge, we started the scenic Quinault Loop that takes you in a big circle around the Quinault Rainforest. We were surprised to find that we were practically the only people on it:

First stop was a short hike to the World's largest spruce tree

Second stop was this roadside waterfall. You step one foot off the road and you feel like you are in a prehistoric jungle

Benji was excited to climb up on this ledge above us

As we got to the more remote areas, we saw more wildlife. This was a ruffled grouse (there was also a chick with her, but it scurried off the road)

As we completed the loop, we stopped at the Quinault Visitor Center and met our friendliest ranger of the trip. He highly recommended we take the short hike through the maple grove on site, so we set off:

As we left the visitor center, we happened upon a stopped car in the road. As we slowly passed, we realized it had stopped to watch some Roosevelt Elk in the forest:

We drove a little further and caught sight of some movement at the forest edge. I realized it was a raccoon and thought it might be sick since it was out midday, but after a second realized it was actually three baby raccoons just scampering around. I did not get a great picture from the car, but they were adorable:

We finally finished the Quinault loop and headed off towards the coast. The drive was pretty, with wildflowers lining the road the whole way:

We arrived in Kalaloch mid-afternoon and our room was ready, so we dropped our stuff and headed down to check out the beach:

The water was so clear!

Before dinner, we decided to check out the short nature walk near the hotel (more rainforest. Very pretty, especially in the evening light, but we only went partway since it was buggy and we had already seen a lot of rainforest). Back at the hotel, we had our first served (not takeout meal) on the deck of the lodge:

Back up in the room we were enjoying the sunset, and after a while we wandered back outside to take in the views from closer to the beach:

View from our room

View from above the beach

We tried to hit the sack early in preparation for another early morning tomorrow.