Valley of the Giants - Lake Quinault

By Mom of TJB and MMB October 04, 2016

Evie and Marit holding hands on the rainforest walk

The Olympic National Park is home to the only temperate rainforest in the United States. We were fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa Pastorius and Auntie Annie and cousin Evie come visit us over Labor Day. The kids left early on Friday with Grandma and Auntie to beat the traffic. Grandpa was bumped off his flight but he eventually arrived; however, his baggage somehow ended up in Texas. We made a quick trip to the nearby Target before headed to the very rural and very remote Olympic National Park for the weekend. We arrived at the "Valley of the Rain Forest Giants" and the historic Lake Quinault Lodge late on Friday night.

Lake Quinault Lodge, built in 1926

Lake Quinault is on the western side of the Olympic peninsula and the surrounding valley gets its name because of the record number and size of tree species located there, including the largest Western Red Cedar, Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, Alaskan Ceder and Mountain Hemlock, as well as five of the 10 largest Douglas-firs. The area gets and average of 12 feet of rain per year. Luckily it didn't rain much while we were there!

Theo by the rain meter

On Saturday, we explored along the shore of Lake Quinault and did a few short hikes and had a picnic by the lake. It was very relaxing and the kids enjoyed the indoor pool as well.

On Sunday, we woke up early and headed to Ruby beach along Hwy 101. Low tide was at 8:30AM and we saw dozens of star fish and hundreds of baby crabs were nestled on the rocks in the intertidal zone next to the tall sea stacks.

Ruby beach at low tide

Family pic (sans Uncle Dan and Uncle Eric)

Huge driftwood was piled up along the shore and the waves of the ocean rolled in and we got our feet wet. The weather wasn't terribly warm but the kids had fun playing in the stream and in the sand. Next we drove up to the Hoh Rainforest for picnic and a hike (and so Mommy could get another stamp in her National Park Passport book). It was quite crowded and we actually preferred the quaint hikes in Lake Quinault more.
We headed back to the ocean to play at the beach and have dinner at Kalaloch Lodge to celebrate Grandpa's birthday, which was lovely except the girls were getting antsy as it was past their bed time.

Grandpa and his helpers at Kalaloch beach

The next day we packed up and drove along the single-lane gravel road around Lake Quinault. We saw a small black bear but unfortunately we didn't see any elk. The area is home to over 3,000 Roosevelt Elk, bigger and darker than their Rocky Mountain counterparts, they are protected in the Olympic National Park. We did one more rainforest hike to explore the mossy trails before heading back to Seattle. Theo completed his Junior Ranger packet and took the pledge to become an official Olympic National Park Junior Ranger, which he was quite shy about but he got a cool badge and a new vest to prove it.

Our Official Olympic National Park junior ranger showing us a banana slug!

It was a very peaceful weekend with lots of fresh air and beautiful sights. We'll miss the Pastorius crew but we hope they come back to visit again soon!