Olympic National Park and we finally got the last mouse!

In order to make our drive shorter in getting to Olympic National Park we decided to take a ferry to Port Townsend, which by the way is adorable, too bad the sun never shines.  We spent two nights in the park and hiked up "switch back trail" until the trail disappeared due to snow.  Notice on the sign below that the first mile and a half of hiking goes up 1,600 ft in altitude.  That's a pretty steep hike for anyone, much less a six year old.  We were able to follow it quite awhile, scrambling up the snow packed mountain, but it finally became too daunting (see pictures below).  We then backpacked into Ozette Beach and stood at the western most point in the contingent 48.  When we returned we realized that we still had a mouse in the car, if you hadn't read previous posts we had already gotten rid of 3 of them.  We drove to Forks, WA stopped at the hardware store and bought a mouse trap (non-kill of course because Ashlin could not deal).  We put out the trap overnight, and bam we got him.  For the first part of the morning Ashlin declared, "it's like I have a pet".  We then let her "pet" go into the woods and everyone was happy.  Hopefully, the mice fiasco is over...We are headed into the Three Sisters Wilderness area today after a delicious layover in Portland (food trucks were amazing).  Also, we got a new tent at REI because our's started taking in water, so look for pictures next time of that!

With a rope tied on one end to a tree Ash and Derek are playing jump rope.

More

1600 feet in 1.5 miles!

Start of switchback trail

And the snow scrambling starts

blazing our own trail since we lost it in the snow

I am pretty sure I was thinking about hiking straight up this snow and Derek said, "do you think that is the best idea?!"

<3

Being careful

And still being careful

This buck was essentially posing for Derek

He is so proud that we are about to make roasted beets for dinner

Reading under the tarp.  A northwest staple.

Interesting sign outside of Olympic NP

She misses little Nicky so much she has resorted to petting slugs

Our campsite we hiked out to, Ozette beach, Washington coast

Checking out the tide pools

Not sure, I think this is what they were calling this their summit pose.  At 2 feet above sea level.

Fire on the beach

Bald eagle.  As close as I could get.  Sure could use a better camera huh Rachel?

Star fish!!

Amazing

Taking it all in while the tide is out.

Since you can't filter ocean water, we had to use water from the closest stream, swamp water.  Safe, but...sometimes your water source looks like tea.

Getting ready to head back