Travel - 2016 USA - PNW (pt 1)

First stop on the road trip was Olympic National Park. I choose to rake the road route (as apposed to ferry) as that would avoid city driving my first time in the wron side of the road. On the hwy I definitely felt that I was a little too close to the right had side of the land a few times. No driving fouls and no one honking at me so I must have done ok.

The road to the park was just a boring hwy at first but then began to curve along the coast a little and get to a more rural hwy state. I made it to the park late arvo too late for walking so I set up camp for the first time in a week and had a good night's sleep.

The next morning I went up to Hurricane Ridge. It retain lt lived up to its name with the wind howling past me making it hard to walk against. I made it to a lookout hill up a short trail but with the clouds I could see some mountain rains but not to the coast.. 



I then headed off in search of the Rainforest on the other side of the park. It's a big park with no through roads so to go around took 2 hours. On the way a came across some hunters (just outside park boindaries) loading a huge elk into their ute. First elk I've seen and it was taking 4 men to barely drag/lift it into a ute tray. 

Beyond them I reentered the park to check out some Temperate rainforest. Similar kind of tall trees but a noticeable lack of hi-jack/hitchhiker plants. No stag horns, no stranger vines. Just big trees and lots of moss. Was pretty cool as there were also some trees scattered in some Meadows shedding golden brown leaves. 



The distance/time signs are a little off for me in the more touristy sections of National Parks. The 2 walks I did at the Hoh rainforest had a combined length of 2.5 hours. I was back at the car in under 30 min... So with the extra time I figured I might as well get a drop on the next days driving.

Heading east I got to a built up area about when it was time to stop. Not wanting the fuss of finding a camp I opted for a cheap hotel so I could get moving the next day. When looking at rates I forgot about State tax,  city tax, etc etc so the room was a bit more than 'advertised' So glad we don't have to deal with that in Aus... 

Next morning I made full use of the breakfast... including enough for lunch... and got moving. After driving a while saw a tourist sign to a petrified forest just off the hwy. Stopped in for a gander and I'm glad I did. Ancient trees petrified to stone. They had cages up around all.of them, I guess a few people took parts as souvenirs



Hwy driving in the states is about as exciting as it is back home. I do find I'm missing a few things too. Like my fridge. I'm eating food like I'm hiking again. I also miss a long range fuel tank and TripleJ. There seems to be too many country radio stations here... but it's definitely the religious sermons that have the strongest signal...

For my next break I stopped off in a botanic garden to stretch my legs. They had roses, huge playgrounds, a few fish ponds and a Japanese garden all together. Lots of people out enjoying it too.



I only went just over an hour past the gardens to a free camp near a lake. A few fishermen returning with their boat just after dusk but otherwise I had the place to myself. Will try to hit up a few more on the way to make up for all those extra taxes...

More of the same driving the next day. Another difference over here is the speed. Often it's posted as 75 miles (120km) and if you sit on the limit a lot of people will sail past. The only people I had to overtake were either trucks or large RVS. I've also noticed that a lot of ranch/farm land us even more cleared than Australia. Most farmers at least leave the creek line green and a few scattered trees for shade, here there is barely anything left standing.  

Eventually I made it into Glacier National Park. They have all but shut down as winter is coming. Most campgrounds are either closed or 'primitive' (they lock toilets and shut off water) and they also stopped the park shuttle (which limits the day hikes I had planned.) It's still really beautiful though... and cold. I can see why people.would shut down for the cold... and it's not even winter yet!



Stayed in my warm bag for a while in the morning before setting off onto the 'Going to the Sun road.' It's a really beautiful road that cuts a cross section through the park. There are heaps of places to pull over and stop to admire the beautiful views. 



I stopped off at a trail head to do a hike up to Swiftcurrent lookout atop a hill. The lookout itself was hugged by clouds but the views on the way up more than sufficed. It was good to get a decent length hike in too. I considered doing a little more on the hidden ridge trail but as I made my way down from the lookout to the junction it began to snow lightly so I headed for the car instead. 

Another good thing about walking up to a lookout is the return journey is all downhill and fast! Given that it's past season I also didn't see one other person in the 4 hours of hiking so I set the phone with a time to snap this one.



Back to the road and it seems most people had risen from their hibernation. I wouldn't say the road was busy but certainly more than there was this morning. Plenty of vantage points to stop along the road for photo ops, it really is a beautiful park. All either on the road or a very short distance for those that don't want to stroll too far from the comfort of their RV.



I stopped off to do another shorter hike to some falls. There was many signs warning about recent Grizzly bear activity (eating as much as hey can before the winter.) Unfortunately I didn't see any, though luckily I guess none saw me... One campground was closed due to the increased activity, but it was a fair way away. 



Swung around to the eastern side of the park to one of the main camping sites that had been placed into primitive mode. More warning signs and as I was setting up a ranger came by to ensure I was doing the correct thing with food storage. She also informed me that one of the walks (up to a man made tunnel through a mountain) had been closed. There was 3 hikes I wanted to do with probably only time for 2 so it made my decision easy.

Snowed on me last night, only about an inch but enough to make it cold in the morning. Surprisingly though last night I was pretty warm, I wonder if all the snow made an iglo type situation before it melted off in the morning. 

It took a while to pack up and eat breakfast but soon I was off on another hike. Grinell glacier is one of 35 glaciers that existed in the park. All today are far smallet than they were... some are all but gone. Perhaps all those renewable energies are melting them? Just like solar and wind power apparently melted those high tension power line towers in South Australia recently...



Hike didn't seem very strenuous but as I breezed past a few other hikers it was clear those 152 ish days of training were still paying off... Views going up of the mountains covered in fresh snow was almost as good as the glacier.





On the way back down I ran into a 60 strong group of grade 6 students on a field trip. They stopped off at one of the lower lakes and luckily I only caught up to them less than 5 min from the car park. The teachers playing tail end Charlie knew about the PCT and were happy for trail tails and very excited that I rated Glacier NP, their local, as amongst the best things I have seen so far in the States.

After another short hike I started off on the next adventure. Some of the I5 interstate has 80 mph speed limit... so I was getting here at a fairly decent pace... I stopped for the night in a town called Bozeman. Plan to check out a dinosaur museum in the morning before continuing onto Yellowstone NP.