More Lake Quinault and Olympic National Park

Tuesday, the 21st is Joe's birthday and it is a beautiful day. We decide to get out our boat and set it up with the sail as there is a nice breeze. Setting up the sail adds a bit of time to the regular inflating,etc and so it is almost an hour by the time we are ready to pull the boat over to the water. Then someone comes by and tells us we aren't allow to take boats on the water. What, we kayaking a number of years ago. It seems the lake is property of the local Native Americans and last year they decided only natives can take any type of boat out on the water. They originally didn't allow swimming either but changed their minds on that. We had heard  recently that these particular native americans were not very friendly and I guess he was right. I can see them not wanting power boats, but canoes or kayaks? Oh well, we packed up the boat and enjoyed the nice weather the rest of the day. We went to the Roosevelt Room at the Lake Quinault Lodge down the road from us. .It was named after Franklin D. Roosevelt who visited the restaurant and area in 1938. Months later Olympic National Park was created. Their food is very good. Joe had scallops and I had the mushroom risotto. This after having an appetizer of calamari. We also got a bottle of wine that we took back to our site later. The dining room is very nice with wonderful views of the lawn and lake out the large windows.

Below is a picture taken from a website of the hotel with the dining room on the right.

We took another walk that goes to one of the waterfalls in the area. We were able to walk from the campground, where the trail starts behind the general store. Another beautiful walk through one of the three temperate coniferous rain forests in the Western Hemisphere. Saw lots of mushrooms but didn't pick any as we have no mushroom knowledge of what is save to eat.

In less than mile, though mostly uphill, we arrived at the creek and waterfall.

We could have continued on another loop that ends up near the lodge but decided to go back the way we came. We got back a lot faster than going to the waterfall as mostly downhill, obviously.

Here are a couple of more views of the campground and the cabins that are the road that goes into the campground.

As I mentioned in the last post, this is the Valley of the Giants, with record heights of a number of trees. The largest Spruce Tree is right by the campground. 

The picture below shows some scale to see how large the tree is.

Well, we had some nice days but the last part of the week we were there was cloudy and we got some rain.

Plus, more is expected in the next little while. One day we drove north a little and checked out a few campgrounds, one which we totally loved. It is right on the water and is first come first serve. We plan on going there on Monday, the 26th. As it is first come first serve, we will have a place through the Labor Day weekend. since we didn't make reservations, this is a good thing. Below a few more pictures of Lake Quinault, which we thoroughly enjoyed.