Olympic National Park

A wild chicken!! 

A random waterfall suddenly appears.

Lakeside camping at its best.

Grand Lake

Not a bad view to wake up to.

I wonder if those deer know that there's giardia in that water...

Winter is coming?

Tempting to climb those cliffs, ain't it?

It turns out that camping on the coast is really nice.

I hopped into my Saturn and boogied my way out of the national forest and made my way to the Olympic National Park visitor center. There, a ranger and I busted out a sweet 3-day plan to get me camping by a lake in the mountains followed by an ocean-side solitary snooze. With bear canister in hand I stumbled into the wild. Camping at Grand Lake was quite grand. I almost had the entire lake to myself, barring a couple that set up camp down the trail a ways. The hike into and out of the valley provided all sorts of nice views.

On day 2 I drove to the ocean and hiked along the coastline. I've never seen so much driftwood before. The rain forest comes right up to the shoreline and consequently makes a damn mess of the beach. To my benefit, the burning of driftwood is allowed and I had myself a roaring (and legal) fire all night long. Sleeping right on the sand with a rainfly above me was a nice change from the typical hammock or car bed sleeping situations.

I've now made my way out of the park and am currently figuring out my next course of action. I'm thinking of exploring Mt. Rainier National Park, however the weather doesn't look promising. We'll see!