What a park! Never have we been to such a diverse and expansive set of ecosystems. We were up 5,000 feet and saw mountains that were 8,000 plus feet tall. We saw overgrown flora in the rainforests. Then we ended up on the coast with the drift wood and mountains in the sea. When we first entered the olympic national park we drove all the way to the top of a mountain and had incredible views. The snow capped mountains were breathtaking and there were deer and other critters all along the way. There was a trail there that took us up even higher into the clouds and gave us 360 views of all the surrounding mountain ranges. After that we dipped down and headed for the forest. The Hoh rainforest to be exact. It was sooooo green there! Everything is thriving and competing for life there at the forest floor. What was interesting is they do not attempt to clear any trees even when they fall over and this is due to the fact that as the trees break down, other seeds will grow ontop of it and use its nutrients to grow. The tree seeds will compete with other trees and the tree with the biggest strongest roots will prevail. Cougars and bears are apart of the wildlife found there and we were sure glad not to find any of them on our hikes! Once we finished exploring the rainforest we drove out to catch the sunset at the coast. The coast was great and had all sorts of crabs, snails, anemone and fish hanging out in little pools all over. The sunset was beautiful and the contrasting "haystacks" (which are mountains that have been worn down over time in the sea) looked pretty amazing. It was a long two days but full of new experiences and perspectives! On to the next state!
