Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is massive with four different regions it was originally designated Mount Olympus National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 and resdesignated a National Park by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938.  It includes 60 Miles of rugged,  sandy beach.  for you Twilight fans it  includes La Push Beach and the Quilete River.  The beaches are so different from those on the New England Coast.  The first thing I had to get used to was  directionally the coast is west.  I have lived with the ocean being east my whole life so I had to keep reminding myself of that.  The next surprise was all the huge piles drift wood.  There is only a beach during low tide so we had to plan things around tides, this includes how far you walk on the beach.  Low tide is also the best time to go tide-pooling.  We visited Ruby and Rialto Beach. There are a few numbered beaches as well but we only had time for those two.  Rialto is the easiest to get to.  There is a parking area and a walk way.  The others have lots to park in and then you have to hike/climb down to get to the beach.  At Ruby we had to climb over the giant wood piles.  We visited the Hoh & Quinault Rainforests they get on average 150 inches of rain a year making them close to the wettest places in the lower 48 states although we were told it does not rain much in July and August.  Not sure if that is true but I can attest it did not rain the three days we were there. These are temperate rain forests as opposed to the tropical rainforests throughout the southern hemisphere. The moss growing on the trees and the size of the trees is just so different than what I am used to seeing.  It was an amazing journey.