Reach for the Light :: WA

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Months ago, I booked a trip to Olympic National Park. The highlights (I thought) would be the Hoh Rainforest, Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc falls, and the beaches. Then the shutdown happened.

The day before I left, I scoured the web looking for updates to see what roads and trails were open, and how bad things were. Obviously the government website was no help… it had been shut down since December.

In the end, we flew out with two real plans. First, be prepared to hike pretty far in from the roads, bringing trash bags and gloves. We wouldn’t contribute to the problems facing the National parks, but we sure as hell were gonna help where we could.

The second part of the plan was hope. We rearranged our itinerary based on 5 day old trip reports from strangers on the internet. There was no telling what we would actually find at any given place. But I held out hope that we would still be able to enjoy our time there.

In the end, we did pick up trash, hike pretty far to get to things, missed out on most of the spots I was planning to see, but the peninsula is spectacular. Even with limited access, it was an inspiring trip.