Olympic National Park!

It has always been a dream of mine to visit Olympic National Park to see the temperate rain forests and photograph their beauty.  Dream became reality two days ago when I added an overnight trip (thanks to two leftover segments on my USA Rail Pass) to the park!  I enjoyed a 6 mile hike through the Quinault Rain Forest, taking time to photograph amazing old growth trees, waterfalls, and the lush ground foliage.  After my hike, I drove west to the pacific coast of the park to check out the rocky islands and sea stacks found there.  It was full-on raining at that point, but I took advantage of the weather to add some atmosphere to my photographs.  Like any good photographer, I took better care of my equipment than myself :-) , utilizing rain-sleeves for my cameras, and a plastic 'turkey bag' to protect the contents of my backpack from the water, but had forgotten my umbrella and raincoat back in Portland!  Fortunately, I am an extremely melt-resistant person!


My time in Olympic National Park was priceless.  I really enjoyed the various eco-systems found there and drove almost 400 miles in my exploration of the park (thank goodness for the gas economy of my rental Prius)!  I even saw cougar tracks in the rain forest and helped protect myself by alerting all rain forest animals to my presence with my loud performance of songs from Lady Gaga's Born This Way.  At one point I heard something rushing up behind me and was prepared to beat the hell out of it with my very hefty tripod -- fortunate that I realized it was just a jogger before inflicting any damage.  WHO JOGS IN COUGAR COUNTRY?  


Anyway, here are a few of my favorite photos of Olympic!