The Sol Duc Waterfall

The Hoh Rainforest, a wonderful place, and definitely worth a visit—might have gotten bumped to second place after my visit to the Sol Duc waterfall. I took this picture while standing on the bridge, a shot taken by thousands of people before me, but it's a meaningful moment frozen in time for us. 

The hike was short, only a mile, and there were lots of people enjoying the trail last Monday. I had to wait for some of them to move off the rocks, and breathed a sigh of relief when they did. You cannot tell, but the water drops several stories below the yellow leaves, and I was holding my breath as they climbed around to get the angle they wanted. 

It was colder than we expected when we arrived at the parking lot fourteen miles from the Sol Duc entrance to Olympic National Park, and the lot was half full. We could have gone three more miles on the trail to a lake, but we weren't prepared for eight miles round trip, so we'll return someday. We brought snacks to keep our energy up—nuts and Milk Duds, mmmm, and sat by the falls for a while. 

On our way back, we pulled off at Salmon Falls. I think it's a little late in the season to actually observe the salmon going upstream, but we did see a few of them calmly hanging out in the beautiful turquoise waters. They probably made their way upstream at some point, but not in the hour that we were there enjoying the scenery. 

We observed a couple of older ladies taking each other's picture with a teddy bear purse. I think they were embarrassed, because they explained to us that a friend gave it to them. They wanted to document the fact that they had the purse with them so as not to hurt their friend's feelings. They assumed I thought it was silly, when in actuality I thought it was adorable.