Olympic National Park back to Reno – Aliner camping part 3 of 3 » Lake Tahoe and Reno fine art landscape lphotography, local stock images and freeance photography.

by Scott and Monique

part 3 of 3

The last leg of our journey had us leaving northern Oregon and heading to the Hoh Rain forest. This was a small, but scenic area. Mossy, yet hot and sunny while we were there. Not very rainforest-like at all. While the only real accessible parts of any scenic beauty are along the hall of mosses trail, apparently somewhere in the Hoh Rain forest, a couple of old hippies have built their own luxury, off-the-grid tree-houses. Wish I had known that when I was up here. Remember any of the pictures you see can by licensed for use, or purchased by contacting me or searching through my online photographic archive.

Panoramic view of the Aliner and our river-side campground at Hoh Rain Forest. For a rain forest, it was pretty damn hot.

Moss covered trees along the Hall of Mosses trail at the Hoh Rain Forest

The town of Forks, WA is the setting for the Twilight novels. Since there is really nothing else of interest in the town, they are doing their best to ride the Twilight trail as long as possible. But hey, if you picture in your head the setting when you read the novels, it pretty much looks like this, though only bits of the movies were filmed in the area.

The town of Forks, Washington, the setting for the Twilight series. Can you guess Monique’s favorite?

The town of Forks, Washington, the setting for the Twilight series.

After Forks, we settled into the Mora Campground near the coast. Don’t bother with La Push campground, but do go there for some local smoked salmon. From Mora Campground, it is a quick access to the famous Second Beach (great photo area) and to the Rialto Beach, which is the start of the roughly 32 mile Olympic Wilderness coastline. You can’t camp for about 2 miles from Rialto, but after that you have 32 miles of uninterrupted beach at your backpacking leisure. This area merits days of exploration. At low tide. At high tide. At sunset and sunrise. We are planning to come back and hike the whole coastline. I think it blows doors on California’s Lost Coast.

View from the town of La Push.

Driftwood tree housing at La Push, Washington.

Rialto Beach was the start of the Olympic Wilderness shore hike. This is a random stretch of the Olympic National Park that encompasses about 32 miles of contiguous shoreline that is open for backpacking. I think it puts California’s Lost Coast to shame.

Monique explores the starfish at low tide at Rialto Beach, part of the Olympic National Park.

The Arch

Monique explores the starfish at low tide at Rialto Beach, part of the Olympic National Park.

After about a week of rustic campgrounds, we decided it was time for a shower and to splurge a little by overnighting in one of the campgrounds at Sol Duc in Olympic National Park. It was a little more expensive than your average campground, and yes, there is a fancy-pants lodge at the hotsprings. But camping out, you can by a $12 pass to the hot-springs which can be used multiple times during the day. Well worth at least one $12 luxury spa. We hiked up to Sol Duc waterfall in the early morning hours. Before sunrise because I didn’t want any hot-spots on the water. We didn’t see a soul…..except, as we were hiking up, we got sidetracked by this beautiful mossy stream. We spent an hour or more bushwacking up it looking for great vantage points. After about an hour of off-trail hiking, I am composing a picture and I see this bright pink thing come strolling into the frame. I wait as Ms. Pink works her way down the side of the boulders, reaching my location. At 6:30 am, it is one lone female Japanese tourist, in pink plastic flip-flops, pink skirt and pink sweater. All by herself, didn’t speak a word of English, and when she finally reached me, she simply handed me her pink Hello Kitty covered ipad and posed for a picture expecting me to know what to do. Well, I have to say I was impressed, so I took her picture, made an unintelligible Hello Kitty joke and Ms. Pink smiled and went on her mud-covered way down the hill in her pink flip flops.

The majestic Sol Duc waterfall in Olympic National park, Washington.

I think some of the mossy side streams along the Sol Duc waterfall trail were even more interesting than the actual falls.

Mossy streams on the trail to the Sol Duc waterfall in Olympic National Park.

We were attempting to make Eugene, Oregon for the next stop, but it got too late, so we pulled off on Johnston Observatory Rd. and grabbed a campground just off the highway there. After settling in, we drove the 42 miles, mostly straight up, to Johnston Observatory Ridge to photograph the sunset and have a look at Mt. St. Helens. I guess it was just before tour bus season, or perhaps too late for them, but judging by the parking lot size, this had all the makings of a cluster %$#&! But Monique and I and another photographer named Iron Tazz Scaggs were the only humans about. The wind was blowing and clouds were boiling up and low and behold, we discovered we could cast a circular rainbow around our silhouette by getting between the sun and the clouds. Hence, my first cloud-bow.

Flowers with Mt. St. Helens from the Johnston Ridge observatory. I remember when this erupted. I was only a kid and we got some ash from it, but even now, 30+ years later, the devastation is impressive up close.

Saw my first ever Cloud Bow from the Johnston Ridge observatory at Mt. St. Helens.

Photographing the cloud bow from the Johnston Ridge observatory at Mt. St. Helens. We found that only by standing on the railing, would the sun hit you and cast a rainbow silhouette onto the clouds.

Nice sign on the way down from Johnston Ridge

Steep grade on the way down from Johnston Ridge

A good portion of this trip revolved around beer, as life does in general. I only heard of Ninkasi brewery out of Eugene, Oregon two years ago when they started sponsoring our World Kayak throwdowns in the Tahoe area. The owner and brewer are both big kayakers, so they came down with a truck full of beer for our first event and paddled with us, then left the beer. Well it is damn good beer, so knowing that we were going to be going down I-5, I made a point of stopping at the brewery in Eugene. They have basically started a transformation of a really run-down industrial part of the city. They didn’t have their food permit at the time we were there, so they sponsored a fairly eclectic food-truck gathering out in the street where you could get some grub, then bring it in to their cool patio and order beer and eat. A damn cool place in my opinion and worth a visit if you are in the area. All the Ninkasi pics were taken by Monique with her iphone.

Had to stop at my favorite brewery, Ninkasi, in Eugene Oregon on the way back down. They sponsored our kayaking for the last couple of years, so even though they can’t import directly into Nevada yet, we have had a few truckloads to work through each year, and it is awesome beer!

And a cool brewery also.

The flavors of the day on tap. There were a lot of things I had never tried on tap at the brewery in Eugene.

Since Ninkasi doesn’t have a food license yet, they sponsor regular food truck gatherings in a lot across the street, so you can have your beer, then head across the street to a totally funkafied food experience.

Chocolate covered bacon and organic Kombucha, one of the more obscure food truck offerings

Our last stop was the McCloud river campground. A trail runs from the campground to 3 majestic waterfalls all within 3 miles. I jumped off the first one, and have kayaked off it in the past. The other two were significantly larger and good for swimming near, or photographing.

Our last stop before home was at the McCloud campground where a short 3 mile loop takes us past 3 awesome waterfalls. I have kayaked off the lower one before, but never any of the uppers.