Olympic

 

This week we are “based” at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Air Force/Army base, outside Tacoma, Washington. We chose this location so we can do day trips to explore Olympic National Park northwest of us and Rainer National Park northeast. It’s also a central location where we hope to touch base with family and friends in the area.

Our first exploration, after getting settled here was in Olympic National Park. Very few places provide the diversity Olympic offers; dramatic undeveloped coastline, rugged mountains and enchanted forests. Since we’d just spent a week on the coast we decided to explore the Staircase wilderness area of the park where the Skokomish River flows through lush forests creating cascades and rapids. 

There are ten named sections of Olympic park. The coastal area is comprised of Ozette, Mora and Kalaloch. Forests and big trees can be found at Elena, Sol Duc, Dosewallips and Staircase. The rain forests are Hoh and Quinault. Mountains and glaciers can be found at Hurricane Ridge. After reading over the list of the ten sections, I realize that other than Staircase, the only other section’s name I can pronounce, with confidence, is Hurricane Ridge. Because no roads go through the park, it’s difficult to explore more than one section in a day. That leaves nine more visits before we can say we’ve truly seen Olympic and plenty of time to download a pronunciation app.