Olympic National Park, Port Angeles , Washington

Olympic National Park is at the north-western tip of US. The whole area is scenic with its blue lakes and snow covered mountains. We approched the Olymbic mountain ranges traveling from the eastern side of mountain ranges to reach Port Angeles thru
Sequim by taking US-101.


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We approched the visitor center and gathered information about all the locations of interest. Our plan was to visit all the places possible on a single day. The whole area is so wide that some of the beaches are far away and you may end up loosing time traveling.

We started journey towards Hurricane Ridge. As we started our ascend towards the Ridge , clouds engulfed our route and the visiblity was almost zero. It was turning out to be a dangerous car drive thru the hair pin turns and twists. Both sides of road where full of tall , green , wet trees. Once we crossed the mist we could see snow covered mountains and the seen was awesome and I dont know the apt words to describe !



We came back to Port Angeles and then took the route towards to Crescent lake. The lake water was so cold and we spent time on the shores spenting time in some photography. We returned back towards Bellevue by late night and it was US Independece day and we could see fireworks all thru our route. And I started my account by opening the first traffic ticket after coming to US !

Mount Rainier National Park , Washington

We planned a journey to the Mount Rainier Scenic rail road which starts from Elbe during the morning time. The jounery is by a old steam engine which takes you towards a nearby lake. From Seattle , Tacoma , Olympia and other areas to the north, you have to follow Interstate Hwy 5 to Hwy 512 toward Puyallup. Exit 1 mile to State Highway 7 to Elbe . Approximately 40 miles directly located on Hwy 7, which is also known as Moutnain Highway. Although we reached a little early some delay was caused due to the repair work being carried on one of the rail engines.


The journey is scenic and mostly thru Forest. We could see lot many campgrounds on both sides of the route where people where enjoying their camping. One way journey is around 45 minutes and then 15 minutes stay at the lake. The whole journey is thru the foothills of Mount Rainier. After return we moved ahead to visit the Mount Rainier National Park.




It almost 30-45 minutes from Elbe and as we reach the Entrance to Mount Rainier National Park we have to pay a 15 dollar for entering the park. Once we enter the park the route is green and vivid. Dense forest surronds both sides of the route. We took our lunch from Copper creek hotel and then started our upward journey towards the Paradise point. As we travel ahead we could see lot many snow covered moutains in and around. At one point we just stopped our car and went out to stand above massive snow body we saw near the road but as we tried to stand on the edge of the snow it got crushed and we all got wet as there was stream underneath the snow.



We further went ahead to reach Paradise point by noon time. It was one of the spendid seens in a long time. There was trail one could climb covered with snow. We tried hiking the snow covered trail and eventhough it was easy climb intially as we gained the altitude things were becoming hard. So we spent time playing in the snow and then took some snaps near a snowman made by someone before we started our return journey to Seattle.