Sept 10 - Sol Duc Trail, Falls, and Cascades, Olympic National Park, Washington

  It was supposed to rain this afternoon, but be OK in the morning, so we got an early start, and drove over to the Sol Duc trail.  The weather turned out to be perfect--mid 60's, partly sunny.  The trail through the forest was every bit as magical as the Hoh Rain Forest.  This time, I kept thinking of elves.  Expecting Galadriel to be waiting for us at the top of the trail.  The trail led us to a really nice triple water falls, into a gorge. 
 On the way back to the main road, we stopped at the Sol Duc Hot Springs resort.  The hot springs looked like round swimming pools, not the Yellowstone kind of hot springs.  So we passed on going in.  But we did also stop at a water cascades by the side of the road.  It was breathtaking.  The sound, the rocks, the pools of water.  We just sat in the sun and appreciated this Earth's nature.
  In order to return to the RV, we needed to go past Cascade Lake again.  I would love to live on the shores of that lake.  The clouds hovering in and around the mountains, the crystal-clear lake, the tree-covered steep slopes, made for amazing views.   We had to stop a few times at the pull outs (the lake is 12 miles long, so there are quite a few pull outs) and just enjoy the view, again.

Sol Duc Trail and Falls photos:

Cascades photos:

Cascade Lake photos, again: