Thursday July 31 – Sol Duc

In the morning we actually manage to get up early (8 o´clock! J) and by 9 we are already at the next campground in Sol Duc.  We find a beautiful spot to set our RV and then decide to hike to the Sol Duc falls. We walked straight from our campsite and are actually all in a very good mood. Being in the forest brings our spirits up: we love the smell of the pine trees and the sound of the river but unfortunately there are some mosquitoes that begin to make Markus and me a bit nervous. As usual, everything has two sides and the positive thing about this is that we get to see some amazing spider webs lit up by a sun-ray!

The walk to the waterfalls takes us about 1 ½ hours but they are worth the hike. I sit on a rock and just enjoy staring at the water and letting its sound soothe my mind. 

We continue our hike which now begins to bit a bit strenuous because of the elevation, furthermore, the weather is humid and hot. Approximately half an hour before reaching the top where the Lake Deer is we have to stop to take a rest and eat our Cliff bars.

The lake is beautiful, surrounded by Douglas firs, Sitka spruces and some red cedars. The water is obviously freezing and nobody wants to jump in. Klaus and I take our shoes off and wet our feet for a while.

At a wood opening, we sit down and eat our sandwiches. The way back is a lot better since it is all down-hill and we are now in the shade. 

After six hours of walking….! We finally make it back to our camp-site. Everybody take a folding chair and start doing some reading. 

We then decide to ride our bikes to the Hot-Springs Resort. The kids have never been to something similar and neither has Klaus so they are pretty amazed about the temperature and the smell… sulfur obviously!

At one of the pools we meet with a lady from Hoquiam, Washington. She has a tattoo on her forearm depicting a young man of about twenty-three. She notices that I am trying to read the bible quote underneath it and she tells me her story: the young man was his son and he used to be a line man (someone setting up electricity lines), he died electrocuted while doing his job. We give her our condolences and begin to chat and she sort of invites us to pass by her lavender farm. 

After taking a shower we go back to our campsite. The boys make a fire and we have some real American hot-dogs. All in all it was a beautiful day!