I caught my first live glimpse ever of the Pacific Ocean earlier this week, along with my first ever trip into a rainforest. Then there were the mountaintops enveloped in fog, all of this in the Olympic National Park, which covers nearly one million acres on the Olympic Peninsula, not far across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Highway 101 was worth every mile in gas and side trips, even in the drizzling rain and cold. Hurricane Ridge is magical and mystical even when fog envelops the mountaintops.
Here are a few fun facts:
The Hoh Rainforest on the west side of the mountains is one of the few remaining temperate rainforests in the United States. It gets 12 to 14 feet of rain a year.
Lake Crescent is 624 feet deep. Scary.
Roads near the coast are clearly marked with the proper "tsunami evacuation route." That's right - if an earthquake occurs, everyone is supposed to head for the hills. Even scarier. I have an unusual and sometimes irrational fear of natural disasters (except tornadoes). And heights - I'm afraid of heights too.
The wind gusts on Hurricane Ridge get up to 75 mph. It's enough to blow a person right off the mountain. Maybe.
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