We left the Olympic Game Farm pretty jazzed. The weather was perfect, again, and we couldn't believe our luck. We were on a roll. Up next up...the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. We'd heard and read some pretty cool things about the place, so we were eager to check it out.

We were intercepted at the trailhead by a trio of very friendly, and very elderly park volunteers (all veterans of either WWII or the Korean War) and they told us a little about the place, even a couple things we hadn't gleaned from our reading. We were expecting big things as we made our way down to the surf.

The refuge is essentially a giant spit, a narrow swatch of rocky beach protruding from the shore into the Straight of Juan DeFuca. We were told to watch for migrating whales, and sea otters playing off shore. We were also warned about the thousands of shore birds that nested on the beach. I was expecting to see an explosion of wildlife as we strolled down the spit towards the Dungeness light house in the distance (is it unreasonable to expect such things from a national wildlife refuge?). How many animals did we actually see? Not a single, solitary creature. Not so much as a seagull, or even a crappy busted up sand dollar.

I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it was the wrong time of year, the wrong time of day, or the fact that I hadn't worn deodorant since Shelton. I don't know. Ultimately, the only redeeming things about the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge were the park employees, and the views we got of the Olympic Mountains to the southwest.



We wasted little time making our way off the spit, and onto the 101 for Port Angeles. From town, we made for the national park entrance, and the road to Hurricane ridge. We went from sea level to ski level in less than an hour. The drive up to the visitors center is one of the coolest on the peninsula. The views of the interior of the park from this elevation are, well, you know the old saying...a picture is worth a thousand words.









There, now this post is like 4,000 words shorter than it would have been otherwise.

I wish we had been there later in the day. These images would have been alot better in the evening light, but, we didn't want to burn the rest of the afternoon at the visitors center waiting for the shadows to lengthen and the colors to warm.

So, we snapped these flat, blue abominations and moved on.