We had planned on going to see the Hoh Rain Forest but scratched that off our plans because we were also planning to go to the Quinault Rain Forest. Wel we got the Quinault Rain Forest and since it was Sunday it was all closed. You could still hike but we had no cash to pay the self pay parking. Chaz was pretty bummed…and even though we drove by it a few times I didn’t get any pics of the lake either…duh.
We did go on the 30 mile loop that goes around the lake which is technically still the Rain Forest and saw a couple waterfalls.
I almost got a picture of a Golden Eagle but a lady drove up and scared it off…I was irritated when she pulled up and said yeah there is an eagle here I saw it on my way by before… Oh really!? And me standing here with my camera pointed off to the side of the road didn’t clue you into it still being there…grrr…so there is the eagle…
We saw the “Largest Sitka Spruce Tree in the World”! It was pretty massive!
Chaz walking out to the spruce tree…
On the scenic loops we saw Merriman Falls…I could look at waterfalls all day! They are all so different!
We also saw Bunch Falls and a small set of falls right next to them.
Some of the scenery along the way…
This was the Suffleupagus tree…
The last hike on our trip was to see another cedar tree… The Quinault Big Cedar Tree…not to be confused with
“THE BIG CEDAR TREE”. 
Another killer hike with lots of stairs…some of them seriously 2 feet high…Chaz had to help me up some of them!
Only to get to the top and see a stump…ok ok that’s what the lady behind us called it but really it was a dead cedar tree… It was definitely not worth the short but killer .25 mile hike. And we didn’t have any awesome Deliverance stories to go with it!
Although on the way down I did feel like I was going to be trampled by the woman following us down. I even asked her if she wanted to go past us but she said oh no I’m fine don’t let me get you in a hurry! Well with all that tromping and jumping and almost sounding like she was falling down the trail…I felt hurried!
On the way up Chaz stopped in a old hollowed out tree. He said it was going down…it was all rotted and you could see the ground below through the roots and it was cracking…hey honey how bout you step out of there ok! 
Chaz looking rather small among all the big trees…
A gigantic fallen tree along the trail…
And that concludes our weekend! I hope you enjoyed all the pics!
The next stop on our tour was Ruby Beach. The motel owner/tour guide in Port Angeles had shown us pictures of all the beaches and spots she had been and said Ruby Beach was a must see!
It was definitely very pretty…there were a lot more people there than at Second Beach. It was pretty easy to get to though, only a short hike.
I did a little bit of journal wrecking on the beach. Thanks for the sand idea Lori.
We thought we had remembered her also telling us to go to Beach 2…so we went to Beach 2 as well. It wasn’t anything special but it was quiet and we were to only two people there. So that was nice.
A lot of the trees had these huge growths on them. I have seen growths like these before on little twigs but nothing like this! It was crazy! I asked Chaz if he thought aliens were in there.
I copied others and made a Cairn…
Some poor crab is wondering around without a shell!
And I got my 52.5 weeks JUMP shot there…
He had wanted to jump off of this log but changed his mind when we got out on it. I think it was 6 or 7 feet down…
A couple more Cairn’s that others made…
A look down the coast…
We finally made it to the next day! Saturday was a LONG day! When we got back to the motel we both crashed!
So Sunday we headed south…towards Aberdeen. Our first stop was the Big Cedar Tree…really it is on the map just like that. We start to see signs saying Big Cedar Tree Duncan’s Memorial. So we turn off where it says to…and we drive…and drive…just before a fork in the road a post “Big Cedar Tree” with a curved arrow to the right…driving…driving…another post with an arrow curving to the right. The car in front of us turns around and goes back…driving…driving…another post turn right…
I think at the third one Chaz started making jokes about this all just being a scam to get people out in the woods alone. We could hear the banjo’s from Deliverance playing in our heads…LOL!
I think in total there were 5 or 6 posts saying to “go right”. And then there it was…the BIG CEDAR TREE!
It was definitely really cool and the biggest tree I have ever stood next to…well maybe. Anyway…really all it is a big dead stump with stuff growing on it. But it’s still cool because it is SO BIG!
You see Charlie the ant there…(oh and yes when I refer to Charlie and Chaz…he is the same person. Just so you know…)
In the scrubbed off area it reads…
“THIS TREE WOULD NOT BE DYING IF ITS NEIGHBORS WERE NOT LOGGED.
TREES DO NOT STAND ALONE.”
And this concludes our almost near Deliverance experience in the woods of the Olympic National Forest…
Better known as the Beach that tried to kill me…there was no signage stating how far the hike to the beach was…so we had no idea going in what we were looking at. And it wasn’t the distance really that was hard…it was the climb out…
According to the National Park Service website it’s a .7 mile hike…with and 80 foot gain and a 100 foot loss. A loss that had to be GAINED in nice stairs back and forth up the side of the mountain…I knew going down that the climb back up was going to be utter HELL! But we had already gotten that far so I wasn’t turning back! That site also says it is an EASY trail…gah…EASY killed me. YEAH RIGHT!!!
But even with all that it was a beautiful beach as well! Only two other couples down there when we were there. So that made it even better!
As we were walking around the beach Chaz said you messed up your heart… ??? What do you mean? You put C + B…not E + B… huh… You are Charlie right? ROFL… Oh he said…well we are here on this whole Twilight thing I thought you were doing Edward + Bella! HAHAHA!!
Here’s your nasty seaweed stuff Lori…
Yes…we are still on day two…Chaz tried to kill me off I tell you!
After we took our whirlwind tour of Forks, we headed out to La Push to get some dinner.
Good thing we aren’t Vampires!
We ate at the River’s Edge…the burger was great…the service was lacking…
The view from the restaurant was pretty cool…except one thing…you get the picture…lol
While we sat and ate…and waited for our waitress…we saw lots of seagulls… a few Eagles! Dang my crappy lens and inability to get good pics!! And we also saw several Sea Lions. No pics of those because by the time our waitress finally brought us our check and then had to fix it because she charged us for double the drinks…they were gone.
First Beach was…I am really getting tired of my lack of descriptive words for all these awesome places! I’ll just let the pics speak for themselves…
This tree was HUGE!!! Just washed up there on the beach!
It was crazy seeing all the trees and logs washed up on the beaches!
The hike to Sol Duc was also a .8 mile hike. It was an easy hike NO STAIRS!
A little bunch of falls on the way up to Sol Duc…I don’t know if they have an actual name or not. I’m sure they do. And if I did a little research I’m sure I could find out…but that’s not the point of this hike…
I’ve seen pics of these falls before and was pretty impressed! I wasn’t disappointed! I even asked Charlie if it was wrong of me to be more impressed with them than Niagara Falls. He said no because this wasn’t a huge tourist spot. You have to actually put some effort into getting there. There aren’t a million and one people everywhere. And we actually got down right next to them! We went down on the rock just above the little fall there on the right. And got some of the pics below…
I love this one the best…the clouds came in for a little bit and blocked out that harsh sun that was causing bright spots in the rest of them. And it lookes so dreamy from the mist and water that was spraying up on the lens and camera and me!
This was looking away from the falls…
Beaver Falls…before we left Chaz looked up all kinds of places he wanted to go visit. There are a gazillion waterfalls where we traveled so he wanted to see as many as he could.
This waterfall was said to be up Highway 113…not to far from the 101. There would be an abandoned rock quarry on the left and a long pull out on the right. No signs anywhere and Chaz was wondering why. So we spot the quarry…and then the pull out immediately after that. And as we are pulling over I see the falls on the right. We soon found out why there was no signage… The path down was just what had been warn down from people going up and down to see it. Not a great path and right off the road…I only almost slipped and slid down once…
I had read that it’s best to come early spring when the river is running more. It was still pretty cool but I could tell it could be even better if we had come another time.
First glimpse of Lake Crescent…
I love this shot of Chaz…
Not much to say about these pics…I think they speak for themselves! The water was so clear and beautiful!
Some wildlife! And they just stood there and let us walk up pretty close…so used to people being around I’m sure.
Run little deer the vampires will get you!
That is supposed to be the instant version of the above pic…but it decided to expose for the trees and blew out the rest…shoulda known it would do that…
The hike to Marymere Falls was .8 miles…it was a pretty easy hike for my out of shape butt…until we got to the stairs…luckily they weren’t too bad…but they did show me just how out of shape I am! Later I will share with you the stairs that amost KILLED me! But all of the climbing was worth it, since I made it home alive!
The falls were pretty cool! The most impressive of the weekend but still cool to look at and take pics of!
A nice lady asked if we wanted a pic in front of the falls…oh sure I guess.
This little tunnel takes you under the road and back toward Lake Crescent. To me it looked like it could go anywhere so I had to stop and take a picture of it!
