Olympic, Rainier and North Cascades National Parks

Spanish First, English below: 

Hola!  En 12 de August nosotros iremos a la Parque Nacional de Olympic.  Era fantástico! Tiene un bello sitio en un una de los únicos selvas templados en el mundo!  Después de la rutina nosotros iremos a un caminata que era 5.4 millas y ir a un cascada. La caminata era muy interesante y la cascada era tan relajado.  Después de esto nosotros regresamos a la RV para duermen. En la mañana de la proxima dia, nosotros maneja a Seattle. Manejan para como un hora y paren en un otro lugar de la Parque Nacional de Olympic.  Olympic era muy grande y diverso entonces nosotros quieren parar uno mas vez para mirar a los otros partes de la parque. En esto parte nosotros caminen en un caminata que se llama “Momentos en Tiempo” (esto era un poco chistoso).  Era un muy corto caminata, entonces nosotros combinan con un otro sendero. Esto caminata ir a una otro cascada! Esto cascada era magnífico, pero hay muchos personas en la sendero y nosotros caminan muy rápido porque era tan concurrido.  Después de esto nosotros ir a la RV y continúan a Seattle. Próximo es la Parque Nacional de Rainier, donde yo estoy ahora!

Hoy, nosotros dormir más tardes (woohoo!) y ir a la hermosa, grande, nevada Rainier para hacer un 4 milla caminata que ir a la “Lago Congelado”.  Este lago no están tan impresionante. Después de esto nosotros ir a un otro lago, “Lago de Sombras”. Esto era más impresiva y hay muchas flores y animales! Ver un marmota y un bebe venado!  Después de esto nosotros ir a la carro y manejan a un otro caminata que era más corto. Esto caminata era con un guardabosque que se llama Becca. Guardabosque Becca era tan informativo y simpático y era un bien camina!  Después de un largo dia, nosotros regresamos a la RV y “chillaxed” para el resto de la dia. A las “North Cascades” después!   

Uno dia despues, nosotros llegan a la Parque Nacional de “North Cascades”!  Nosotros dormir tardes otra vez, y ir a una 4 milla caminata en un bosque y con un lago en la fin.  Después de esto nosotros ir a 3 cascadas! Uno era como 50 pies y tiene un hermosa sonar. El segundo era 200 pies y muy poderosa! El final era muy chiquita y no pueden ver fácilmente.  Esto cascada era mi favorito porque era pacífica y al bajo de la cascada hay un bonita piscina de agua que era un magnifica color! Próximo de esto nosotros cruzada sobre una presa y después regresamos a la RV.  El resto de la dia nosotros “chillaxed” y yo lee mucho. Después comemos la cena y ver películas de la Parques Nacionales. Un otro fantastico dia, pero mas relajado, en la calle! 

English Version:

Hi!  I know I have not written a blog in a while (Mom accidently did Crater Lake, which I was going to do and by the time I reminded her she was basically done) but today I will be doing a three in one blog, starting with Olympic National park.  This park was incredible! We arrived there around 1:00 on August 12th and found an incredible site in this remote RV park surrounded by jungle. Think I’m exaggerating about the jungle part? Nope, Olympic National Park is actually a temperate rainforest, one of only a few remaining in the world!  As soon as we got there we did our routine (see below) for docking, and then proceeded to the Olympic visitor center.  

From there we went on a 5.4 round trip out and back to a really cool waterfall.  It was a difficult hike, but definitely worth it. It was so peaceful and beautiful at the waterfall, with a crystalline stream connecting with a river.  After that we hiked back and went to the RV to chillax (in case you don’t know, chillax is one of my favorite words. It combines “chill out” with relax.) and go to sleep.  The next day we got a fairly early start and worked our way towards Seattle. On the way to Seattle we made one last stop in Olympic National park (it’s huge and super diverse so we were trying to see a little more of it in a different area).  This hike was a super short loop, called the “Moments of Time” trail (the name kind of cracked me up) which we then decided to join up with a trail to yet another waterfall (I love waterfalls)! This route however was very crowded and not super enjoyable.  We quickly made our way to the waterfall, went “Beautiful! Fantastic! Moving on,” and speed walked back to the car. In fairness to the waterfall, it was really cool, coming down the cliffside and dripping into a small blue pool. We drove back to where we had the RV and continued on our way to Seattle.  From there we went to Glacier Bay, Alaska and then headed to Mount. Rainier, which is where I am now!

Today we slept in (yay!) and went to beautiful, big, snowy Rainier to do a 4 mile hike through beautiful meadows and with gorgeous vistas.  The first stop along the loop was “Frozen Lake”, which, no offense “Frozen Lake”, was underwhelming. However, we did see a Marmot relaxing on the rocks!  If you don’t know what a Marmot is, it’s basically a really cute groundhog. Then Dad, Hazel and I (Mom went back to the car to stretch because her sciatica was bothering her) continued on to “Shadow Lake”, which was more impressive.  On the way back we saw more wildflowers and a fawn! It was really cute, but we couldn’t see the mom anywhere, which was a little worrying. Then we finished the hike, me up with our mom and went to a picnic hike for lunch.  After that we went for a short ranger guided walk amongst some really big trees (which you think are big and then compare them to Redwoods; they never stood a chance).  Ranger Becca was super informative and it was an enjoyable walk. Then, after a long and gorgeous day, we went home. Now we’re just chillaxing and writing blogs (Hazel’s writing the Glacier Bay one).  Next we’re headed to Cascades!

One day later we arrived in North Cascades National Park.  In Cascades we slept in again (this is like some new record)!  Then we went on a 4 mile round trip hike, the Thunder Knob, through the jungle-like woods of the North Cascades to an overlook of a beautiful man-made lake.  Then, once we finished the hike we (upon my insistence) drove to an incredible waterfall. Three, actually. One was right off the road and went for about 50 feet up and down.  It was beautiful and made the best noise. The next reached up to 200 feet and was spurting out from the cliff side.  It was an incredible feeling standing close to something that powerful. The final waterfall you had to look really hard for, because it was hidden beneath the foliage in the canyon the road crossed over.  It was more like water cascading down rock then an actual waterfall (you might be thinking, what’s the difference, but I tend to think of waterfalls as spilling over something really fast, not dripping over the edge, like this one was).  It was probably my favorite one yet, with it’s quiet demeanor and beautiful colored pool of turquoise at the bottom. After the waterfall extravaganza, we crossed a really neat dam and headed back to the RV. The rest of the day we spent resting, preparing for school (mostly math) and just chillaxing in general.  I finished 4 books (yes, I was reading 4 books at once) in record time and was just finishing the last one. We ate dinner, showered and then watched some National Park movies by Ken Burns called “America’s Best Idea” and then settled in for sleep. Another fantastic day, though somewhat more relaxed, on the road!