We had managed to reserve a campsite for three nights at Sol Duc Hot Springs. I enjoyed the warm mineral pool and the cool swimming pool.
It was quite the international crowd, as at Radium Hot Springs in BC. Slavic speakers, Europeans, and Japanese sat around steaming like dumplings in soup. I noticed casual US life guarding. A little girl of about 5, wearing floaties, was practicing holding her breath under water in the shallow pool. She did this in the face-down, dead man’s float position. I kept a close eye on her. I found a pair of eyeglasses on the bottom of the deep pool and turned them in. They were later claimed by the owner in a happy reunion.
One of the best parts of these preserved areas is the chance to see really old trees. Here’s a red alder that has been through a lot:
JG hiked along the North Fork of the Sol Duc River after biking to the trailhead. The following day, I hiked to Little Divide from the Sol Duc Resort. On my hike, I saw a white-tailed deer. I had seen my first one at Norbury Lake in BC. They are reddish brown and flick a creamy white, twitchy tail. At first when the deer turned around I thought a squirrel was riding on its backside. I am used to the mule deer and black-tailed deer of the Santa Cruz mountains or Sierras.
There was a white family in polo shirts and Bermuda shorts on the first quarter mile of the trail who gazed in hushed awe at a squirrel. A gray squirrel, a bushy-tailed forest rat, an enemy of the homeland security patrol. Not everybody lives surrounded by them like we do. I may have felt superior. But later I was gazing in awe, too, watching fish jump in Mink Lake. Here’s Mink Lake, WA.
Why do trout jump? I watched them, trying to figure it out. It wasn’t to catch insects. Nor was it to scratch the sea lice off their backs. From what I could tell, the trout were juveniles and they were playing. Plink plink. Splash. Pitta pitta splash. Happy kiddos.
Here’s a trail photo. There was almost nobody on it. I saw about 13 people all day, mostly when I was returning to camp. That’s a contrast to the trailhead at Sol Duc Falls, which had about 100 cars and many hikers.
It was hazy from the wildfires hundreds of miles away.
JohnandJanet'sJourney 