Jen’s Journal – September 25, 2019

Day 88: Hoodsport Winery

Sunny and pleasant.

The days becoming shorter and shorter is getting a little worrisome to me. We don’t go out much after dark, but sit in Arvi and read. Arvi is small to sit in for hours every night. We may have to stay closer to towns, where we can go to libraries or restaurants or something. The problem is finding a place to park overnight in a town. Walmart?

I think we will have to come up with a new system.

We got to Olympic National Park around lunchtime. We stopped at two visitor centers on the North side and did two hikes.

The second Visitor Center is at Hurricane Ridge. We had a couple glimpses of the sun and got some beautiful views up there. We even saw Mt. Baker, miles away, the same mountain we couldn’t see when we were so close to it in the Cascades.

We learned an interesting thing about the park that you probably wouldn’t know if you’re not a local. Two dams were removed from the Elhwa River, and when they were removed the new river washed the road out, so the Elwha Road park entrance and visitor center is permanently closed. We only learned this because I asked the ranger at the Visitor Center why the road was permanently closed. He also said that the salmon are again using the river. We are wondering how they knew to use it if they weren’t born there. We figure either:

1) the salmon were confined to the lake behind the dam and went whooshing down the river when the dam was removed, or

2) the salmon would swim as far up the river as they could, to the dam, and spawn there, and when the dam was gone they swam further upstream.

Fascinating, huh?

This is Madison Falls, at Elwha Road.

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