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Washington - Day 6

Washington - Day 6

 

September 8, 2016


 

With well over 55 miles hiked so far, knowing today would be our last real hiking day brought some enlightenment to our quads and calves (at least mine, anyways!).

With just one major hike planned for today, we headed to our next and final national park in Washington - North Cascades. Located in the northern part of Washington and bordering Canada, we had about a 2 hour drive to the trail head with plenty of site-seeing in between. Before getting to the trail head, we stopped to stare at Diablo Lake - an incredibly blue lake with one of the craziest colors of blue I had ever seen. How is this even real!?

Our main hike today was Maple Pass, a trail that switchbacked its way up to a gorgeously-breathtaking vista of the park, providing us with many views of turquoise-colored ponds and lakes, rolling fog, and endless peaks and valleys.

Once making it back to the car, we zoomed back to Federal Way to grab some Fatburger and to get some much-needed rest - we had a long night ahead of us at Ruby Beach looking into the center of the galaxy!

Leaving for Ruby Beach around 7 PM, we enjoyed the 2 hour ride back to Olympic National Park, with Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast making the time go by.

Arriving at the entrance to the beach, we got all of out gear packed up, and we headed towards the beach. By going out on a moonless night, we put our flashlights and headlamps to great use as we navigated the thick brush that lined the trail to the beach in almost complete darkness.

Once finally stepping foot onto the beach's sand, we were greeted with massive tree trunks that had fallen and split all along the beach, separating us from the water.

Once clearing the trees, we had a short walk to where we would set up camp. Being low tide, the water was still a hundred-or-so yards away, but I knew this would be the perfect place where I would frame my shots.

Once our eyes adjusted, looking up gifted our eyeballs with a site that never gets old. With the Milky Way shining directly in front of us over the Pacific Ocean, we were draped in yet another blanket of stars as my jaw dropped into the sand.