We love our life in San Diego– the Goldilocks weather, the endless beaches, the year round gardening. But I do miss the deep leafy greenery of Northern California and beyond. I miss the forested hiking trails. The changeable weather. The blazing colors of fall.

That’s why in Mid-September, we flew north to Seattle for a week of wandering the green wilds of Olympic National Park that we’d heard so much about.  We were excited to see forest-skirted lakes, the Puget Sound, the shimmering rivers and the deep mossy trails in one of the Northwest’s most beautiful locales.

We started off on Bainbridge Island where dear former Bay Area neighbors now live.  It was glorious hiking along their country roads, picking blackberries that stained our hands and staring mesmerized out their terrace at fog rolling across the mountain surround.  We felt like we were in a fairytale English village by the sea.

Then we headed out for three days of exploring hiking trails in three different parts of the Olympic National Forest.  We started in Port Angeles where our first hike was high above the town in an area called Hurricane Ridge.  The mountains appeared blue in the late daylight though we could see a smoky fire far below.  However, no one seemed concerned about the fire–it’s part of the natural cycle of things there– and so we didn’t worry either.

The second day, we drove further west toward Crescent Lake.  The road suddenly became smoky and we felt we were driving into danger and nearly turned off. Instead, like the cars ahead, we kept going and finally turned a corner where the winds and smoke dissipated.  

We arrived at beautiful Crescent Lake in late morning and parked near a historic Park lodge.  Hike two led us to sparkling waterfall, a river draped in fallen logs and a brief uphill hike. On our return, we decided to refuel with lunch at the Lodge.  It was a tasty meal with a perfect view of Crescent Lake and a little beachfront.  I should mention this was the only delicious meal of our 3-day Olympic odyssey. But more on that later,

On our third day, we drove south to the Hoh Rain Forest region. But first, we stopped at Ruby Beach, a windy and driftwood-dusted North Coast beach with gorgeous views of tree-frocked rock islands just offshore. 

Then into the Hoh Rain Forest.  We were well prepared for muddy going. We had brought rain jackets, rain pants and we even bought rubber galoshes to put over our boots.  None of these were needed!  As was true of all of our trip  thus far, we found only sunny, late summer weather.  

Nevertheless, we wandered along a fantastic, shrouded forest trail with tall cedars and firs festooned in moss and dripping lichen.  The dirt trail was soft but not muddy while the fern-clad forest floors were consistently moist with rivulets and misty drippings.  Uprooted trees created anthropomorphic shapes in the woods and every step of the hike was glorious.  

Following that hike, we headed to our last night’s lodging. But first, we made one last foray into the woods. We stopped briefly inside the entry at shimmering Quinault Lake. There we found yet another rustic-chic, historic lodge in a deep tree-filled surround. It was the perfect last stop to our journey through Olympic National Park.

At this point, you may be wondering where we stayed during our Olympic odyssey. I wish I could tell you we stayed in places as lovely as these classic National Park lodges. But we did not. I’d highly recommend that future visitors book these spots and fully immerse in the park experience but we were too late in booking our trip to get reservations.

Instead, we stayed outside the park in three different towns– Port Angeles, Forks and Aberdeen– with little to recommend them for hotel accommodations or cuisine. In fact, in our second spot in Forks, we ate both breakfast and lunch in our room with basic supermarket fixings.  The food scene was bleak.  These are the towns that logging built and then forgot. There’s not much industry left to support a vibrant cultural, economic or tourist scene. 

While we enjoyed warm, sunny days throughout our trek, as we drove back to the Seattle area on the first day of Fall, the weather suddenly changed. It transformed to the rain and grey skies we had been expecting.  For the next two days, we stayed in Bellevue, a lovely suburb outside Seattle. And each evening, we dined out on the cuisine for which the Pacific Northwest is rightfully famous: fresh seafood and salmon.  We also discovered a charming, woodsy loop trail just five minutes from us called the Wilburton Park Trail . This easy path was filled with lovely surprises including a graceful  suspension bridge over a deep ravine and a back entrance to the local botanic garden.

We flew out of Seattle on a cool, drizzly Monday morning and returned to San Diego to blazing sun and embracing warmth.  As perfect as our Olympic getaway was, it’s always good to come home!