Road Trip 2012, Day 12: Tide Pools, Lakes & Falls

The Martins, being the resident tide pool pros, suggested a very early rise this morning so as to catch a very low low (this means the low tide was actually lower than the typical low tide) around 7:30am. When the water is out that far far more pools are revealed along with animals that are typically not often exposed to air.

Miraculously, we did manage to get up and even got the girls up and going and our two families rolled on out to Salt Creek to go tide pooling. I guess it started kind of slowly, but as we got further out and really started to slow down and pay attention to each of the pools and instead of just scanning across we saw oodles of way cool creatures.

Brad discovered that kelp is slippery, but when he bit it he found a huge sea star (they are not fish, so “starfish” is a misnomer) who was eating a mussel. It was waaay cool.

This particular tide pool reminded me of bouillabaisse  - that seafood dish with a mishmash of all sorts of shellfish & fish and stuff. You can clearly see a huge sea star, mussels, purple sea urchin, ulva, barnacles and lots of other goodies. Yum!

Yes, that’s me wearing a lined, waterproof jacket we bought in Monterey along with two, yes, two, hoodies, one of which is a fleece-lined jacket. I HATE BEING COLD. Becky and Kate and Caroline are in the background looking somewhat more comfortable.

This was a beautiful area and one of the best beaches on the Olympic Peninsula for tide pooling. After scrounging through puddle after puddle of gorgeous aquaria the kiddos headed to the beach to burn off some extra energy. The sea stacks along the Washington coast are phenomenal and this area is no exception.

Our afternoon was spent wandering peacefully down, and up, a couple of trails at Lake Crescent.

The Olympic Peninsula is covered in temperate rainforest, which is a pretty phenomenal ecosystem. The woods near Lake Crescent might not completely fulfill the requirements, but if not, they’re close. The trees were awesome huge and Gary, Becky and Kate are so knowledgeable. They named many of the animals and plants and told us stories about why certain things in the forest exist today. For example (Brad’s telling this as I’m typing):  “Long ago, on the side of a mountain in the wilderness there was a crack of lightning from the gods. The large fire consumed the wilderness. All the animals started to flee. Some flew. Some pranced. Some ran. The only animals that were left were the little field mice that couldn’t outrun the ravaging fire. Their only hope, the mighty douglas fir. Up the bark of the douglas fir they scrambled for they knew the power of its fire resistance would save them. Even today you can still see them hiding in the safety of the pine cone.”

 

There were wildflowers everywhere. I kept asking Brad to stop the car so I could get pictures of the foxglove.

All four kids (Kate’s neighbor friend, Holly, came with) could chillax inside a big, fallen log.

Requisite family photos in front of Marymere Falls.

Gary and Brad researching some new fungus in the undergrowth.

Lake Crescent was beautiful. Very serene, very classy, very…aristocratic. The lodge had such a northeastern, presidential vacation place kind of feeling to it. We had a yummy – and particularly large – dinner before heading back to relax in front of the Martin’s wood burning stove. Anyone on the OP needs to spend a couple of hours around Lake Crescent. Be sure to visit the lodge; don’t just walk around the trails (which are awesome).

Road Trip 2012, Day 11: Beach #4, Ruby Beach and the Quinault Rainforest

We left Aberdeen, Washington, and continued toward the Washington coast. There is a great little visitor center near Beach #1. I asked the young man (I sound so old when I say that, but “cute kid” sounded bad, too) where we could find the best tide pools and he suggested Beach #4. Off we went.

Grace had been totally nutsy antsy to get down to the water to look for critters and so far we hadn’t found a good spot. Beach #4 fulfilled all her creature finding needs.

And Caroline found a new friend. Meet Sam.

Right away Grace found some sea stars. No, she didn’t rip them off the rocks; she gently removed them. No creatures were harmed during this vacation (except those we squushed by accident when walking through the rocks, and there weren’t too many!).

Brad also had a lot of fun playing on the beach. He and the girls played one of his favorite games, jump rope. He really wanted to do double dutch but the girls aren’t as good as he is (VA state champion, 3 years running).

Between  Beach #4 and Ruby Beach was one of the 6 largest trees in the world, a humongous sitka spruce. Had to get a picture of that!

Next we drove north to Ruby Beach, one of the highly recommended beaches to visit There is a large creek or small river that flows onto the beach where it slows down and forms sort of a pond. There are billions of perfect skipping stones right there and I think there are very few people who can walk past that calm pool of water and not skip a few. Look at the concentraion on his face.

Caroline wanted me to take a picture of her jumping off a log. I love the tongue out and leg position. Not sure what she was going for, but funny she was.

And this was Grace, enjoying the peace of the beach.

After the beauty and open expanses of the Washington coast we turned inland toward the Quinault Rainforest and Lake Quinault.

We hiked up to some falls that were near the lodge and visitor’s center. It was more of a hike than we had expected and the rain was kind of unpleasant. Grace’s “raincoat” was far from waterproof and she was a soaking mess when we got back to the car. But it was pretty.

No surprise that at this time we decided to generally stay in the car unless there was no other option. There was a nice route around the lake that we opted to take.

Until we got to the world’s largest spruce tree. That required a short hike. No other option.

It was scenically foggy and luckily I could take most of my photos from the comfort of the car, including this waterfall below where a black lab was happily frolicking.

During our drive around the lake the girls were, for some reason, singing Christmas songs. Don’t ask us why. The weird thing was that while in the midst of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” we passed this tree. Totally bizarre.

We didn’t pass any other Christmas trees on the trip around the lake, just an elk and another car or two. Weird.

The Martin family of Katy, TX and Joyce, WA were kindly putting up with us for a few days so we drove to their adorable house and hung out with them until bedtime. We were looking forward to an early, fun-filled day.