Spring Break 2007

Due to a lack of funds and some things that needed to be taken care of back in Seattle, I didn't end up having a wild and crazy spring break filled with naked coeds, palm lined beaches, and cheap margaritas. Instead, I ended up taking a two day camping trip over to the Olympic Peninsula. Knowing that the weather was going to be pretty terrible, Matt, John and myself gathered our raingear and headed out with minimal planning. That's the nice thing about car camping, you don't really need to plan at all. Even the issue of only having a two-person tent for three people didn't warrant much consideration. With car camping, nothing really seems to be an issue.

Anyway, we headed out to the park with the idea that we'd head to the visitor center in Port Angeles, and ask them to tell us what to do and where to go. The friendly ranger we encountered there gave us some good advice on where to camp and what to see, along with about five maps that all showed basically the same thing. He even gave us a topographic map, but gave up trying to give a good reason for it other than that "it was kinda fun to look at." Can't fault him too much, seemed like a pretty nice guy, and they didn't seem to have too much else to do this time of year at the visitor center.

Following his advice, we headed out to Crescent Lake for a short hike to Marymere Falls (see pictures). It was refreshing to take a hike through some real forests (unlike the boring dry ones you find in eastern Washington). The thick moss that covered everything was pretty cool, and kind of made me wish I could just lie down and take a nap in it. Indian legend tells of two ancient dragons with a mutual hatred for each other. Engaging in a mighty battle, their scales were torn off and scattered around the park and became the moss that grows over everything. Both were evenly matched, and both dragons admitted defeat, crawling into their caves weeping hot tears of mortification. These tears flowed out and formed the two hot springs in the park. Unfortunately, one of the dragon’s tears regularly fail water quality standards which meant we didn’t get to visit the hot springs. In any case, Marymere Falls were nice, about what you’d expect. I took some pictures, not much to say there.

We got back in the car and continued along highway 101 which winds around the park borders and Mount Olympus. Yeah I know, I got excited too, but it’s not the same Olympus. There are apparently about eight or nine mountains across the world all named Olympus. Seems a little risky to me to be naming a bunch of other mountains after Zeus’ home, but I guess people just don’t fear the thunderbolt anymore. Anyway, we made it to our campsite at Salt Creek County Park. It rained pretty hard all night and the campsite flooded, but hey, that’s what camping is all about.

Our site was on a cliff overlooking the water and the beaches below. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any naked dancing partiers. I guess you’d have to be pretty committed to partying to be out in that weather. The rest of the night was cold and uneventful. Fast forward to the next day. We packed up our soggy gear and headed out to the coast, stopping along the way at the Three Rivers Restaurant for lunch. I hate to eat out at restaurants when camping, but their advertisements for the “world famous river burger” convinced us. Turns out that lettuce, pickles, tomato, and 1000 island dressing on a quarter pound burger are all it takes to be world famous. I had no idea.

The next stop was out on the Indian reservation at the local RV park/general store/post office/laundromat for some snacks. We also asked for some matches, as we had used up most of our supply trying to light a fire in the rain. I found it ironic that the Indians gave out matches called “Freedom Lights.” We sure taught the Indians all about freedom. Call it manifest destiny or whatever you want, but we’ve pretty much screwed the Native Americans every chance we got. Anyway, we moved on and headed to Mora campground, where we set up for the night. We explored the nearby beach a bit, and then settled in for another cold wet one. We woke up, crammed our stuff into the car, and headed home.