Joey has been making a valiant effort to try and teach me some of the basics of photography. Some of the photos from this post are from us messing around with cameras. We had plenty of opportunities to experiment, as Olympic National Park is quite photogenic.
We took our time in the morning, playing around with depth of field.
As we headed out of the campsite in the morning, we planned to stop at the National Park visitor center to learn about hikes in the area. The closest visitor center was by the ocean, so we headed to the beach. After picking up some maps, we went to Ruby Beach.
After taking in the beach - we went to the Hoh rain forest. We took a nice afternoon hike to a waterfall through the mossy wilderness. Our trail wound near the Hoh river, so we got a view of the mighty river and many waterfalls.
In the rain forest, the vegetation is so thick, trees literally grow right on top of each other. The park signs educated us about 'nurse trees' - old trees that fall and provide nutrients for saplings to out-compete the undergrowth. I couldn't help thinking of Fern Gully when staring at the mini-ecosystems growing off of the felled logs.
On the hike, we made a bet. Whoever spotted a banana slug first would get the first shower of the night.
Eventually we made it to our destination, a bridge and waterfall in the forest. We practiced messing with the exposure time on some photos.
On the way back, I managed to get pretty absorbed in the conversation. (This is my excuse.) Of course, Joey spotted a banana slug. (NoooO!) We were in the part of the trail that is called the hall of mosses. It is a particularly spectacular section of mossy trees that feels a bit like an outdoor cathedral. Maple trees are particularly susceptible to the moss, and this grove was no exception.
On the way out of the park I saw Elk for the first time. It was hilarious - I was driving the van, and spazzed out when I saw the herd of Elk I blew right by them. I managed to turn around the van (no small feat) so we could watch the elk for a bit.
To round out the evening, we headed through Forks. For all of my closet Twilight fanatic friends - I can confirm that Forks is really a middle-of-nowhere place where nothing is going-on.
That night we also found a pretty sweet camp site - I call it the 'red-neck' camp spot. It was a flattened out turn around in the Olympic forest. There was a burned out car and an make shift loo down there. But the ground was nice and flat which made for a great night's sleep.
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