As we were settling in Thursday evening, Nora's cousin Regan's husband, Tom, who was camped next to us, noticed that we had Colorado license plates and asked if we lived there. I told him the story of how we moved here from Denver in our motor home, and were living in it in a very nice mobile home park in Clearview. He got a strange look on his face and asked if it was off 180th. I told him it was, and he asked me if we'd noticed the yellow gremlin. We had noticed it immediately the first day we looked at the park, and especially liked the "Grrrrr" license plate and Nixon/Agnew sticker! Tom said, "That's my mom!" What a small world! His Mom, Jo, was due to arrive Friday afternoon, and we were excited about meeting her and sharing Norm stories!

Friday morning we planned on driving to the Quinalt Rain Forest,

but first Larry and Duchess took a hike down to the beach.

Duchess enjoyed a little off-leash time.

We relaxed in front of the campfire for a few minutes...

and then headed down Highway 101. We were amazed at all the fireweed along the side of the road.

We turned off onto the North Shore Road, which follows the north shore of Lake Quinalt, crosses over the Quinalt River, and becomes the South Shore Road.

We stopped at the July Creek Picnic area and took the short hike to the lake...

The small trail is wide with huge trees, giant ferns and a bridge over a creek.

Moss

By Bruce Guernsey

How must it be

to be moss,

that slipcover of rocks?—

imagine,

greening in the dark,

longing for north,

the silence

of birds gone south.

How does moss do it,

all day

in a dank place

and never a cough?—

a wet dust

where light fails,

where the chisel

cut the name.

We got back in the car, continuing along the loop and stopping every now and then when we saw an exceptionally beautiful grove of ferns or mossy trees...

This fallen log was covered with an amazing variety of plant life

Lake Quinalt

and on down the road...

The Quinalt River

Bunch Creek Falls is the tallest of the major waterfalls in the lower Quinault area, skipping about 60 feet down a mossy wall, through a series of rock drops, just feet inside the boundary of Olympic National Park.

Bunch Creek

Just a bit further down the road we came to Merriman Falls.

Merriman Falls is the most accessible waterfall in the Lake Quinault area of the Olympic Peninsula. The falls plunge about 40 feet over a cliff before splashing through a pile of rocks and logs covered in all sorts of mosses and ferns and passing under the road towards the Quinault River.