MOAR Sol Duc Falls!

Olympic Peninsula Travelog #18
Sol Duc, WA - Sun, 5 Sep 2021. 3:30pm.

In reading my previous blog, about our hike to Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park, you might think we got to the falls, snapped a few pictures, and turned around. That's what some people do at waterfalls. Not us. We stayed there for a while!

In staying for a while we explored the falls from different angles. The photos in the previous blog were shot from a foot bridge over the creek below the falls. Here's a few from the trail on the other side of the bridge as it goes up along the cliff opposite the falls:



Part of what makes Sol Duc Falls special is the way it turns 90° and plunges down into a slot canyon. Also special, of course, is the way it divides into three chutes.

By the way, you might notice in this photo and others I've shared, "Wow, that's really intense green." Partly that's because the green, especially in that tuft of wild grass at the near edge of the photo, is intense. You know how I've written in a few of these blogs that the undergrowth glistens in this rain forest setting when the sky is dim and there's been recent light rain? This is part of the effect I'm talking about.

The other part of how I get these brilliant colors is using the right gear. Yesterday when a fellow hiker-photographer on the trail offered to take a picture of Hawk and me, he expressed astonishment as soon as he looked through the viewfinder. "The colors are incredible!" he gushed. "Nothing like mine."

"Yeah, do you feel how heavy that lens is?" I asked, referring to the brick. "A great lens can take great pictures. The trade-off is I have to lug it around all day."



As I mentioned we spent a while at the falls. Just upstream of the falls we climbed down onto the rocks at the creek's edge. The footing was slippery so we were careful. Hawk slipped and splashed a foot in the water. Meanwhile I noticed a photographer moving to the same spot I shot the photo above from, except he was setting up his tripod balanced precariously on the wet lip of the cliff. He may have gotten a great picture (it takes more than an expensive camera and the right location) but he also narrowly dodged a bullet in his camera not slipping over the edge and being lost.

After this we turned around and headed back to the car. Hawk's back was twerked from the small slip she suffered on the rocks. We may squeeze in another hike this afternoon; we'll see how she's feeling in an hour or so when we get there.

Back to Town. Dinner Threepeat?

Olympic Peninsula Travelog #19
Back at the hotel in Port Angeles - Sun, 5 Sep 2021. 8pm.

We're back in town now after finishing up our hike at Sol Duc Falls. It's been a reasonably full day. In addition to hiking Sol Duc Falls, we hiked Madison Falls in the morning, hiked along the Elwha River after that, then hiked Marymere Falls before Sol Duc.

When we have hiking days we often try to make a two-fer; sometimes we manage a three-fer. Today was an elusive four-fer. ...And we even considered making it a five-fer with a hike at Striped Peak on the coast near Port Angeles, but Hawk's back was twisted after slipping on a rock at Sol Duc. I was tired by then, too; plus it started to rain in places, so I didn't mind letting Striped Peak fall off the bottom of today's itinerary. Maybe we'll go there tomorrow!

Once back in town this evening our first order of business was getting dinner. Speaking of two-fers, three-fers, etc., we did consider making a threepeat visit to the delicious yet unpopular taqueria one block from our hotel. I'd say people hate them on Yelp except Yelpers actually rate them well; that's how we decided two nights ago to try them. It's just in real life that the restaurant's unpopular. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, we decided while we'd be okay eating at the taqueria a third time if we had to, we'd prefer dining on a different cuisine. Again this evening, like last, though, we found our choices limited by the few restaurants that had outdoor dining instead of crowded indoor dining. Ordering to-go food and eating it in our small hotel room was our least favorite option. We wound up getting pizza slices from a pizzeria that was highly rated on Yelp and had a few outdoor seats. The pizza was barely edible. I guess Yelpers know good Mexican food but can't tell a pizza from a paper plate with cheese.  We probably should've gone back to the taqueria that's good but everyone hates. 🙄

Now we're back in the room for the evening. I took a short nap after dinner— apparently I really was tired out by our four-fer today!— but woke back up a bit ago. There's still stuff to do tonight.

Tomorrow's our last day in the area before we have to head back to the airport and fly home. Actually it's only a half day in the area; we'll need to leave here no later than 1pm for the 3 hour drive back to Sea-Tac. So tonight we're reviewing trail descriptions to decide what's reasonable for tomorrow. Striped Peak, which I mentioned above, is a possibility... but it looks like the winner will be Klahhane Ridge up in the Hurricane Ridge area of the park.

Tomorrow's actually supposed to be sunny. It will be nice to see the high peaks of Olympic National Park in the sun! Of course the one sunny day we get on this trip is the last day, when we have to leave early. Mother Nature's a basic bitch.

[[Addendum, 11-Sep: Wow, this trip has run to 19 blogs already. And, yikes, my backlog is 6 days behind! I expect to finish at 22 blogs and not more than seven days behind. 🥵]]