Church Trip 2018

Quinault Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, South Beach, Ruby Beach, Tree of Life, Hoh Rain Forest, Crescent Lake

Day 5

Day 5 of our journeys started early. After a quick, small breakfast from the hotel lobby, we hit the road for the Olympic Peninsula, the northwest corner of Washington State. We would spend our entire day in Olympic National Park/National Forest. I think we all agreed that this has been our favorite day so far, and it’s hard to top British Columbia.

Quinault Rain Forest // Lake Quinault

Our first stop was the Quinault Rain Forest, which surrounds Lake Quinault in the southeast corner of the park. The Shore Road loops 18 miles around the lake, featuring spectacular views, two waterfalls—the first of which was especially amazing, elk farms, several viewpoints, and lots of moss-covered trees and other flora unique to the rain forest.

South Beach

We left Quinault and headed towards the Pacific coast, stopping at South Beach Campground to see the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time Mom and I had seen the true Pacific, since everything else this trip was technically either Puget Sound or the Straight of Georgia. The views were beautiful, even though it was a hazy day. Dad and I climbed our way down to the beach (literally, climbed because there were so many logs in the way) and took a few pictures, then we returned to the car.

Big Red Cedar Tree

While driving down Highway 101, we saw a sign that said “Big Red Cedar Tree”, so we veered off our intended course, curious to see what the big deal was. It was indeed an extremely big red cedar tree, and probably the largest tree I’ve ever seen. It was an amazing sight to behold. Part of tree had fallen down, but the rest was still growing strong. It’s hard to describe how big it actually was. I bet you could fit 20 people, or maybe even more, in its circumference. The pictures can’t begin to show the scale of it.

Lunch - Kalaloch Lodge

It turns out that when you’re in the middle of nowhere in Washington, you don’t exactly have a lot of food choices. However, there happened to be one restaurant within a 70-mile radius that was open, and that happened to be a few miles down the road from South Beach. We stopped at Creekside Restaurant for lunch, which is housed at the Kalaloch Lodge, which is right on the mouth of a river, where it empties into the ocean. The restaurant had almost no business because it’s the offseason for tourists, and we were the first customers, so we got the prime table with a beautiful view of the river and ocean.

The view wasn’t the only thing that was beautiful. All our food was outstanding, and the most high-quality meal I’ve eaten in the middle of nowhere. I got a salmon BLT with a dill cream cheese spread on olive rosemary bread, and a small roasted winter squash salad with toasted spiced hazelnuts, feta cheese, and an apple cider cinnamon vinegarette. Mom got fish and chips, and a slightly larger version of the same salad. Dad got an elk burger from one of the farms we’d just seen, with a smoked jalepeño-bacon aioli and marionberry jam.

Creekside at Kalaloch Lodge
Forks, WA

Good food with an amazing view, and some nice local items on the menu.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Tree of Life

Right after lunch, we left the lodge and headed a few more miles down the road to the Tree of Life. There is an opening in the rock where a small stream flows into the ocean, and a tree has grown completely over the top of the opening to form a cave. It’s a very unique sight, and was interesting to walk inside. Getting down to the beach was extremely difficult because much of the access had washed out in a recent storm.

Ruby Beach

Our next stop was the famous Ruby Beach. I’d seen this dozens of times in photographs, and on the cover of Backpacker magazine, but nothing could quite do it justice.

Hoh Rain Forest

Next, we headed inland to the Hoh Rain Forest. This park of the National Park has many moss covered trees, excellent views of the the Olympic mountain range, the “Hall of Mosses”, and more. We walked a few of the nature trails, and even ran into a few wild elk roaming straight though the middle of the park! The park visitor’s center was closed for the season, so the park was relatively uncrowded.

Crescent Lake

On our way out, we swung by a tiny local supply store to pick up some t-shirts and a refrigerator magnet for my collection, then headed to the north side of the peninsula. We stopped briefly at Crescent Lake to enjoy the view of the mountains, and then headed to Port Angeles to seek out dinner.

Dinner - Gordy's

We ended up stopping at a pizza place called Gordy’s, and ordered a specialty pizza with Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, pineapple, and pizza and barbecue sauce. It was good but not great, but was quick and cheap, so we could get back on the road again to our hotel in Tacoma.

Conclusion

After a quick pit stop at Walmart to replenish a few supplies, we finally headed back to our hotel in Tacoma for the night, arriving late.

Tomorrow, it’s supposed to rain for the fist time on our trip, surprisingly, and we’re not really sure yet what we’re going to do.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

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