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Have you ever had the experience of eating so many appetizers, that you don’t enjoy your main dish as much as you thought you would? The dish is great, but it should have come out earlier in the evening. That was our experience at Olympic National Park. When you have been surrounded by beauty in every national park, after a while it isn’t as impressive anymore. Our first campsite was in the Hoh River Rainforest. We hiked the Hall of Mosses and Hoh River Trail. We were blessed with crystal blue skies, so we didn’t need our rain jackets. The forest was gorgeous, but after just visiting the Redwoods and Crater Lake, it was tough to get the kids motivated. There was plenty of wildlife; deer, elk, bald eagles, however, the children preferred to relax at the campground, and playing along the banks of the Hoh River. We needed a change of scenery. Luckily, and Olympic NP had just the thing; Rialto Beach. Our sunny skies gave way to a thick marine layer, which made its prominent rock promontories all the more imposing. A 1.5-mile hike north from Rialto Beach brought us to some very impressive tide pools. We timed our visit with low tide and were not disappointed. Our attention turned away from the utopian Hoh River rainforest toward the cranky and cramped sub-tidal fauna of the Pacific. Life in tide pools can be tough, predators abound, and food is scarce. One tide pool held our attention for more than an hour. There were hermit crabs on one side, finger sized cabezon fish on the other, separated by a row of hungry sea anemones. The stage was set for a tide pool tantrum. I cracked open one of the abundant California mussels and dropped it into the pool. The tide pool sprang to life in a miniature game of “steal the bacon”. It was a hurricane of activity as each creature viciously fought the others for food. It was fish vs fish, then crab vs fish as all the creatures shredded the mussel to bits. At one point, two hermit crabs were fighting over a piece of mussel, when one of them accidentally backed into the tentacles of a waiting sea anemone. The kids shrieked with satisfaction as the crab was rapidly engulfed by its turquoise tentacles. More! More!, the children cried, enthralled by their newfound mini version of the Hunger Games. It was only when we cracked enough mussels that the crabs and fish were not hungry anymore, that the kids decided that it was time to go. We looked out over the acres of other pools, each one now seeming to us as its own Coliseum, each struggling to survive the rhythm of the Pacific tides.

First impression: That is a very blue lake. Second impression: There are a lot of mosquitos here. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and it also boasts being the clearest and cleanest. The basin was once a mountain peak but after a volcanic eruption 7,700 years ago, it became a deep fissure and filled with rain and snow. The day we arrived it was perfectly clear and the views from the Rim Village Visitors Center reminded us of a postcard. After exploring the rim a bit, we headed to the Mazama Campground where we found ourselves immersed in mosquitos. We quickly made dinner and played some inside games. Eli started feeling bad around bedtime and after throwing up a few times, settled down for the night. Early the next morning, we decided to make our way to Cleetwood Cove, which is the only legal place to access the lake. We packed our lunch, fishing pole, and swimsuits and headed down the 1.1-mile trail which dropped 700 feet. I can’t emphasize the beauty of the lake views. We stopped along the trail a few times to try and take it in. It is by far one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever seen. At the bottom, we found ourselves excited to jump into the 60 degree lake from a rock ledge! We all jumped. Some of us jumped several times! It was an incredible experience that we won’t soon forget!

By Samantha

At first glance, it was an ordinary forest that just had really tall trees. At second glance, it was an alien world with bizarre flotsam hanging off the trunks of ancient slumbering trees. This unique landscape has not been overlooked by filmmakers and has an impressive repertoire of movies grace its natural wonders.  Over the years, Redwoods National Park has become a variety of movie sets, most notably becoming the Forest of Endor in The Return of the Jedi, and a canyon in Jurassic Park 2. So, when I arrived in Redwoods I naturally did the only thing a Lord of the Rings fan could do in a place that is the spitting image of Fangorn Forest. I flipped out. When we arrived in Fern Canyon, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t start choking back tears. The stone passages of the canyon were covered by a mass of quivering green fans, and dusty beams of sunlight filtered in through the gnarled trees up above. Waterfalls poured from the heavens and into the canyon, turning into babbling brooks of undiluted joy. The floor was a mosaic of swiftly moving streams, smoothly molded pebbles and fallen mossy trees. Except for the sound of rolling water, it was quiet. It was undoubtedly the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. It was all I could do stop myself from hysterically bursting into tears. When I found a hidden nook in a fallen tree, high above the rivers and tourists, I seriously considered abandoning my family and living there forever. I will always remember Fern Canyon, a place with a vivid green heartbeat and the place of my dreams. To me, Redwoods will always be much more than tall trees.