olympic peninsula

We decided to "do" the Olympic Peninsula in Washington Greg-style. Meaning fast. We did the entire loop in one day. This meant, of course, that we didn't have much time for stopping, looking around, hiking, etc. So most of the photos were taken on the fly. The Peninsula is really actually pretty amazing- there is a huge variety of landscapes/scenery there. There are snow-covered mountains, hills, lots of trees, meadows, rivers, lakes, an ocean, etc.

This particular picture was taken as we were driving up into the mountains, called Hurricane Ridge. We got maybe halfway up, and then... the light drizzle wasn't too bad, but the hail, well, let's just say I asked Greg to turn around and head back down. Getting pelted with ice balls while hoping we stay "shiny side up" on slippery roads just isn't my idea of fun.

Oh, oops, I forgot to mention there are rainforests in the Peninsula too! Temperate rainforests, not tropical, of course. Very neat though, lots of ferns and moss hanging all over the trees.

We saw a whole herd of animals, we think elk, but we aren't sure, as we were pretty far away.

The beach in this little alcove was black sand, very neat. And there were very few folks here, unlike at some of the other beaches.

One cool thing - Washington actually has "highways" on the ocean shore. Yep - on the sand. So we took the bike out, just to say we did it. LOL For non-bikers: you gotta understand, two wheels on a surface that shifts, such as sand, isn't easy to drive on!