Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park and The Salmon Cascades

On August 8th we visited Hurricane Ridge n Olympic National Park and then later went to the Salmon Run in the park. We have to say this year we have seen more crowds in the national parks than ever before. You can't even escape them on the week days! I guess it is good that more people are out enjoying them but a few years ago it was more enjoyable.

It has been hard to find a clear day to go up to the Ridge so we gave up and went today as it was a bit better.

Tomorrow we are going to head into the Hoh Rain Forest.

Marmot

Black-tailed Deer

We saw a bald eagle fly into the nest about 1/4 down on the tree.  He didn't fly out but the nest was so deep that we didn't see him and he didn't come out while we were watching.

Common Raven

The raven flew down and gave us an even better picture of him.

Chipmunk

Visitor Center at Hurricane Ridge

This black tailed deer walked right up to us on the path.  Nothing shy about her. 

When we were driving down the mountain, I took a few more shots from the road.

One of three tunnels you drive through both coming and going 

We headed to the Salmon Cascades.  Last time we were here there were bears grabbing salmon off the cascades.  It was a little later in the year and it was 15 years ago.  I'm not sure how many are coming this way now.

It was getting late so we started back home.  We stopped for a short bit just to get a couple of pictures of the beautiful skies at sunset.