DAY 5 - More Rain Forest, Falling Rain, Falling Water, Falling Leaves, and Some Fungal Fun Walks

 The photo below shows what it feels like up here with no cell service - kinda like walking up to a phone booth (remember those?) and getting that empty feeling…

Our first night at the historic Lake Quinault Lodge was quite restful. The lodge has been on this site since the late 19th century and the current building dates from 1926. With the vintage steam radiators clanging and banging faintly in the background, and Karen’s soft snoring providing a musical counterpoint, it was easy to drift into dreams of woodland wonders.

Today brought us what we expected from a trip to the northwest: rain. The morning was overcast, wet and cool when I went out for a short walk along the lakefront. The temperature was in the low 40’s and it felt colder than that. The autumn leaves were drifting by the windows, the autumn leaves of red and gold.🎶

Speaking of leaves and trees, our first trip of the day was a mile down the road to see the ‘World’s Largest Sitka Spruce Tree’! While I was craning my neck upward to take in the majestic height of this arboreal giant, Karen was talking with a couple of hikers who had wandered up behind us. It turns out they were taking basically the same route as us around Olympic National Park. Their labrador retriever is a trained ‘truffle sniffer’ and they go around hunting for mushrooms during their travels. They showed us photographs of some ‘shrooms they’d found under some cedar trees and had eaten for dinner just the other night.

Back in the car, we decided to drive completely around Lake Quinault and take in some short hikes along the way. There are several waterfalls along the route, including Merriman Falls, Bunch Falls, and Cascade Falls. The road around the lake is paved for part of the way, and the remainder is a dirt (mud) and gravel road. In some respects, it’s like a cold weather ‘Road to Hana’, with waterfalls and thick rainforest flora lining the winding highway.

On the north side of the lake there is an old homestead (the Kestner Homestead) at the end of a lush nature trail.  All that remains of it are a few outbuildings and the rusting hulk of an old moving van.

Late in the afternoon we had a short hail storm, followed by some bright sunshine and a Hawaiian-style rainbow.

Then, we took one last hike up to a waterfall on a trail lined with all manner of fungus growing on the rotting fallen logs that littered the forest floor.

There are not a lot of dining options around here, but Karen found a local place in the nearby town of Amanda Park. Dino’s Diner is the local pizza place, but it also serves up a delightful menu of down-home comfort food. Karen had deep-fried prawns with mashed potatoes and country-style gravy. I had some pizza with a couple of pints of  ‘Irish Death Stout’ to wash it down. Just as we were finishing up, the local junior high school soccer club came bounding in for some post-game refreshments and the energy level in Dino’s went up to ‘high’.

There’s still no reliable cell or wi-fi service, so we’ll just have to wait until later to post our updates.

NEXT: We go east for the beginning of our Cascades National Park loop.