Sol Duc Falls and Hot Springs

Thursday morning we went for a hike to the Sol Duc Falls.  The trail leading to the falls was much easier to walk on than the trail out to Cape Flattery.  However, they were both about a 35 - 40 minute walk.  Once we were in the forest it reminded us both of scenes from the Hobbit movies.  Gigantic trees....everything moss covered....lush ferns.  There were foot bridges to cross small streams.  It was truly beautiful. 

I made sure to bring my walking stick with me today!
 Let's do this thing!

 

 

 

 

Moss covered the rocks and a lot of the tree branches.

 

 

 

 

Almost there!

 

 

Sol Duc Falls

 

 

 

 

You can see the rainbow above the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was well worth the hike. 

 

 

 

Sol Duc Hot Springs:   The Sol Duc Hot Springs were just down the road from the falls so we brought our suits to soak in the mineral hot springs after this hike.  They empty, clean and refill the pools each night.  They are not chlorinated.  That was the only downfall.  It felt really good and did not smell as bad as some I have heard about.  There were three different pools with different temperatures (depending on how hot you like it) and a freshwater pool.  The hot water comes from a nearby hot spring and is regulated with cold water to reach the desired temps for the pools.  There was also a very large freshwater pool that was a balmy 79 degrees that day.  I actually got in that one after I had soaked in the hot water for a while.   Alan got in the Hot Springs for a while, but I couldn't  talk him into the cold one.

 

 

 

The Falls and the Hot Springs are inside the Olympic National Park.

 

Boy am I ready for this!

 

Relaxing in the hot water. 

 

 

This was the cold freshwater pool....it felt like a cold water spring. 

 

 

The small pool to the left in the picture above was only 99 degrees and was a wading pool for kiddies. 

 

 

It was warm and sunny (about 77 degrees) that day so it felt like a spring day in Florida without the humidity.