Rainforest and Quinault lake

Biker
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We were supposed to leave around 8:45am today, but unfortunatly there wasn't any bread left (any excuse will do, we're Veltmans), so we left around 9:30 haha..

Not too much traffic on the road today, just the amount of bikers that were there was more than usual. Quite fun to see all of them pass again and again, lots of Harley Davidson's, with mostly middle-aged people riding them. There was one that was quite different there, well actually I found it kinda spacey - all silver, shiny and smooth. Check out the extra pictures section for that one.

Me upside down
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After driving for 2 hours we got to our destination - the Olympic National Park. Parked the car, had a pee and had a sandwich. And another one, took me a little too long for the others to finish it so I went laid back down in the car to rest for a few more minutes until they were ready to go.

Deposited the entrance fee into the box (self-service), and off we went, to the trail. The trees here are HUGE, not like we have them in Europe I tell ya, at least not that I can recall. All the moss on the trees is amazing too, looking kinda spooky at times I guess, but not like it gets you scared or something.

The lake
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Not far from the start there's a little river with a couple of little waterfalls. Nice to see the water so clear and the water running, very calming in a forest without that many tourists. A little further along the path we came across a sign where the trails were shown, sort of a map. Seems like we walked the wrong way, but it was only like 5 minutes back in a normal pace. Where we ended up at the sign was a lake, so we had a look there and a few pictures of course.

Racoon
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Back on track we walked up the river, I found a nice spot on the river and I thought I saw something moving, must've been a beaver! Waited and waited for it to appear again, but it didn't. Patti was getting pretty sore, so she walked up ahead, thinking she was walking towards the car. Dad went looking for her and found her halfway the trail, all exhausted and nearly dried out because she didn't bring anything to drink. She thought she was walking back to the car, but actually walked the whole trail instead! Brave woman I'd say!

Moss in the trees
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While dad was looking for Patti, I told him I would wait for what i thought was a beaver, but seemed to be a racoon. It appeared again, moving over the dam there. A bit later I noticed the Indian people up ahead spotted it! I ran over there and yeah, we saw it climbing up the river bank, over a dead tree and gone it was. But heyyy there it was again further up the river! Trying to find some food digging at the shore. Funny little creatures and I think I got a couple of shots of it.

Waterfall
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I was still waiting for dad to come back, but time was passing by and I was getting impatient, so after about 15mins I decided I'd walk slowly up the trail behind the Indian people. They were pretty nice people, talking their funny language. Pretty impressive big, tall trees everywhere and the moss just grows wherever u can think of.

At one point I saw a bright orange / yellow mushroom. Beautiful sitting there on the path in the midst of all the green moss, and green everything.

Quinault Rain Forest
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I finally got back to the car, and yes I found Patti there, but no dad. He was gone looking for me and came back 10 minutes later. He had walked the trail a 2nd time, looking for me haha, poor guy. Good thing the trail was only 0.6 miles long and he walked it in about 15 minutes.

We decided to drive around Quinault Lake and finally, it was my turn to drive.. woohoo! Not a difficult car to drive, just had to take it slow on the roads without pavement; lots of holes in the road, so I couldn't go any faster than 15mph. Nice experience around the lake though, with the road going through the rainforest too. We ended up on a normal road again after an hour or so and drove back home. Nice day!