Olympic Trip : Day Three - Sol Duc

We left our cabin and the coast after two nights and headed northeast toward Port Angeles. On the way, tucked back up in the woods, is a hot springs resort run by the national parks. It's called Sol Duc (we discovered that's pronounced "soul duck"), and it's on the Sol Duc River. We decided we had to go to our very first hot springs - it's one of the things special about the western part of this country and we hadn't been to any yet! First, we did a hike up the Sol Duc River.

We started off from the hot springs resort and walked through the campground on our way to the trailhead. Lots of camping spots are right up against the river...I took photos of the best ones for next time! We saw a few deer on our way - not quite elk, but still exciting for us city folk. Then the real trail started, 3 miles each way (our longest hike since Silver Falls last October!).

When we got to Sol Duc Falls, it was the halfway point of our trip! We found a nice bench, ate a yummy lunch (we rediscovered how delicious PB&J is), and rested for a little while. We mostly had the falls all to ourselves. We continued on our way, this time on the trail called Lovers' Lane.

(We really need to get one of those grippy monopod things for hiking photos! Finding slippery fence posts or precarious rocks is difficult...)

After six miles of hiking, we arrived back at the lodge more than ready to get in the hot springs! They were even nicer than we imagined - it was only about 55F and rainy when we got in the pool, but it felt perfect with the 104F water temperature. Even though we were super sore from the long hike the day before and the hike up the river that day, the hot springs made everything like new again! I was ready to take a nap, but it was time to finish our drive to Port Angeles. 

On the way, we drove past the gorgeous Lake Crescent. There's another national park lodge here, but it wasn't open for the season yet. We actually found lots of things that we'd love to do that weren't open or we didn't have time for - the perfect excuse to come back again! Next post - Port Angeles & Victoria!