I've been wandering around the U.S. for over 4 years now and it looks like I saved the best for last. I hit Washington's Olympic Peninsula in early May and got my first look at the Olympic National Park. There are 3 major ecosystems within the park; temperate rainforest, seashore and mountains.
This stretch of the coast is similar to California and Oregon in that there are lots of sea stacks and other rock formations onshore and just offshore. The peninsula is situated so that a lot of rain comes from the Pacific Ocean; up to 180 inches a year. The mountains prevent many of the weather systems from moving inland and they dump their moisture in the narrow area between the mountains and the seashore creating the temperate rainforest.
If you don't like the color green, this is not the place to be. Moss grows on everything, including the paved roads. It seems to grow more on hardwood trees than evergreen trees. The needles of the evergreens, mostly Douglas Fir, seem to turn the soil too acidic for plants and even young trees to grow. Instead, when a tree dies and starts to decompose, seeds fall on it and the dead trees become nurse trees where young plants can grow until they're large enough to tolerate the acid soil.
Washington also has many, many volcanoes and glaciers, chief among them is Mount Rainier although nearby Mount St. Helen is probably more (in)famous for having serious eruptions in the 1980's. I hiked many of the trails during my 2-3 week stay but the snowline was still around 3500 feet so I couldn't go very high.
I started back for the coast and was headed for Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. The radio reported traffic jams ahead so I made a right hand turn and changed the course of my summer activities. The Cascade Mountains kinda run down the center of Washington with only 5 roads or highways flowing east to west and none moving north to south. I got on the southernmost road and headed east, then moved west on the next most northern one, east on the next, etc.
Great mountains and lakes on each road and great hiking in many, many areas. I spent the rest of the summer moving back and forth without making a dent in the wonderful hiking. On US-12 I found the Rimrock Lake Recreation Area with good paddling and hiking. WA-410 had Bumping Lake Recreation Area with more of the same. I-90 provided the Cle Elum Lake area and more good paddling and hiking. WA-2 has Wenatchee Lake and lots of hiking.
Then I hit WA-530 between Granite Falls and Darrington. To this point most of the scenery had been lakes and waterfalls and mountain peaks. WA-530 introduced Glacier Peak and several other glaciated mountain peaks and volcanoes. A glacier is simply where the rate of snowfall is greater than the melting rate of snow and ice, meaning if there is still snow and ice on a mountain at the end of summer, that is technically a glacier. Glacier Peak and many surrounding mountains are partially or mostly covered with glaciers of varying size. Lots of alpine lakes nestled in amongst towering granite cliffs too. Wonderful, wonderful hiking makes me wish I could still backpack and get way back in these wilderness areas for days at a time.
I got my first look at Mount Baker as I started east on WA-20. This 10,000 foot volcano is almost completely covered with glaciers on its south side. I did a couple of beautiful hikes and when several different people told me about the north side, off I went up to WA-542.
Wow! is the only word to describe this area. On the north side, Mount Baker is completely covered with glaciers year round. One local told me they once had 1100 inches of snow one winter. Yup! almost 100 feet of snow. No wonder it never melts. Right next to Mount Baker is Mount Shuksan which is not (I don't think) a volcano but has plenty of glaciers on it. I hiked this area for several weeks, every hike a wonder. Many mountain goats too. I really had a good time except maybe for the mama black bear I met on the trail.
I had just started a hike and spotted her off to the side of the trail. She acted very confused, coming up on the trail, going back down and then coming up on the trail again and right towards me. When she saw me she was gone, up over a small bank with clumps of dirt flying behind her. That's when I saw two cubs climbing different trees.
I think she may have heard or smelled me and was looking for her cubs and was totally surprised when she saw me. I was 20-30 feet from being between her and the cubs. That would have been unfortunate (for me) because bears are fiercely protective of their young. If I had got caught in the middle, that just might have been the end of me. As it was, I had stopped and was backing up and fumbling for the camera while putting a little more distance between us.
I had saved the North Cascades along CA-20 for last because they were supposed to be the best of all. Unfortunately, Glacier National Park in Montana had been burning most of the summer and northeast Washington was full of smoke from that fire drifting westward plus a few fires of their own. So, I pretty much just drove through the North Cascades without stopping much.
I did find Ross Lake which I think is going to be a great multi-day paddle trip. I also checked out Lake Chelan but was less enthused about it, mainly because of the daily parking fees. This 60 mile lake gives access to the best glacial areas in the state though so I'll have to re-consider in the future.
I headed down through Oregon in the rain and finally stopped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains west and south of Lake Tahoe, California in September. High temperatures ensured I wouldn't be in a hurry to leave. I didn't hike as much as I wanted but spent most of the time just exploring, seeing what the area had to offer so I'd be prepared for next year.
I was at Yosemite National Park in the spring but most of the park was snowed in then so I wanted another shot at it. Fires did me in again. They'd just had a lightning storm and a lot of small fires were started. I don't think they were anything serious but they were certainly smoking the place up. Oh well, maybe next year.