This is our last day in Olympic National Park. We took a morning hike on Ruby Beach. The tide was coming in while we were walking so we had to watch how far we walked.
Ruby Beach stretches out a long way. It is both broad and long. It had some of the same flotsam as Rialto Beach, but there was a wider beach that made walking easier. There were some huge rocks on the beach in addition to the large rock formations out in the surf.
It was interesting to watch the small springs pop up out of the sand as the waves ebbed. You could see more than just the water from the waves flowing down the beach. If you looked above the line of the waves, the water pushing out of the sand was even more noticeable.
There were also tidal pools and lots of mollusks and barnacles attached to the rocks. The height of the mollusks on the large rocks reminded us that we needed to watch the tide. In places, they were several feet above the water.
We had a great walk on Ruby Beach.
After Ruby Beach, we drove to the Quinault Rain Forest. We were only able to drive the South Shore Road because of a closed bridge.
That was okay because the two waterfalls we wanted to see are on the South Shore Road.
The first waterfall was Merriman Falls. It is about 40 feet tall. It was damp and fairly noisy near the falls because of the rapid water flow.
From Merriman Falls, we drove further down the scenic South Shore Road toward Olympic National Park. The road changed from paved to unpaved as we approached the park.
Bunch Falls was just at the edge of the National Park. The falls hid well in the rain forest. The falls drained directly into the river below.
We drove a little bit further up the road into the Quinault Rain forest, but had to turn around because of the closed road.
After Olympic National Park, we headed toward Concrete Washington which is in North Cascades National Park. On our way there, we drove through Seattle Washington. We saw the Space Needle and spent a lot of time in tunnels. We also saw Mount Adams.
When we got to North Cascades National Park, it was very hazy. We found out there was a wildfire burning in the park.