Road Trip, Day 6: Olympic National Park/Everett, WA

This was technically our 4th day in the park. Again, quoting LF, "ridiculously gigantic." There is so much we didn't see. Shi Shi Beach on the Makah reservation (again, not technically the park but close enough), Ozette, Dosewallips or Staircase. And I'm not even referring to the miles of backcountry or longer trails that we decided not to go on because of time constraints.

Our final exploration in the park was Hurricane Ridge. We woke to cloudy skies and wondered if our trip there would be in vain. But cloudy skies never stopped us, and away we went. We were encased in fog on our way - so thick you could barely see:

We also encountered a black-tailed deer by the roadside:

Little did I know, that wouldn't be the last one I saw. We continued up and up, and broke through the fog. It wasn't sunny but it was clearer:

There were a host of small hikes in the meadows at Hurricane Ridge, and we happily went on them. I found some water droplets on obliging leaves and flowers and broke out the macro lens:

We also saw a deer (two actually) on our path:

So close... or so we thought.

Aren't the mountains beautiful, even without the sun?

We saw beautiful flowers:

And spied a deer family from afar:

And later came upon them upclose:

Isn't he/she cute???

We almost met a bear (several of our other hikers did) but we unsuccessfully stalked it. (We were going to be safe, but were hoping to spy it from the trail.)

We got a little rain but didn't get too wet. Down down down we went into the fog to emerge back into civilization. It was like going to the castle on the cloud...

From Olympic to North Cascades was quite the drive, so we decided to stay a half hour away from Seattle. It was our original intent to camp but combined with the weather report for the previous/current/next day as well as the fact that it was Friday; therefore we thought camping was a poor idea. Plus it put it us in a good place for Day 8 of the road trip.

Hurricane Ridge and more, here:

Entire trip, here: