Fall is on the way...but it's not here yet!!

I am not ready for fall to arrive and thankfully our weather here in the Northwest isn't ready either.  We had a light sprinkling of rain last night, the first in quite a while but the rest of the week is suppose to be dry and sunny with the end of the week being in the high 70's.  I absolutely LOVE autumn but I am just not ready yet.  I still have hikes I want to do and after our long winter I still feel like I need to soak in some more sun before another winter sets in. 

This is a picture of my father-in-law George and Daniel up at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.  We camped at Heart O'the Hills and drove up to Hurricane Ridge one evening.  We went on a little walk and enjoyed the evening light. 

The next day we hiked up Hurricane Hill.

Daisy and my mother-in-law Bonita.

Relaxing at the top.

My parents camped with us for 4 nights.  My mom made a shower set up.  That's what the blue tarp is.  They have a shower bag that has a shower head.  It worked great! 

This is how my dad slept.  He was more comfortable sleeping in his chair than in the van.  We called him bear bait.  :)

We did a lovely little hike to Marymere Falls near Lake Crescent.

Marymere Falls

 My mom watched Daniel for us one day so Rue and I could take off and do a nice big hike just the two of us.  We drove out on Obstruction Point Road.  It is the old survey road back in the day when they wanted to put a road through the Olympics but when they saw the scenery it would cut right through they abandoned the project.  You can still drive out on the dirt road.  It is 8 miles out to Obstruction Point.  The road goes through some amazing scenery but it's not a road you would want to drive a little car on.  You probably could if you wanted, but I wouldn't want to.  The road starts at Hurricane Ridge and it feels like you are driving right over the edge of Hurricane Ridge.  It was a lot of fun!  

This is looking back toward the Obstruction Point parking lot.  In the far left of the picture you can see the road going up and over a hill.  

Mt. Olympus.  I had never seen this view of Mt. Olympus before.  We hiked out towards Grand Lake.

Starting the descent down towards Grand Lake.  We didn't go all the way to Grand Lake but we found a nice little "lake" to eat our lunch next to.

Rue wasted no time "jumping" in.  He's actually lying down in the picture.  

It was so great to be out on a hike all by ourselves.  That is my kind of date!  We are both looking forward to doing more hiking and exploring in this area.  We are also talking about doing our first backpacking trip in the next year or so.