Day 34 - Stinky Sol Duc

Sol Duc is a hot springs resort near the center of Olympic National Park (again, everything’s in the center of the peninsula at ONP). The resort has three hot mineral spring pools for paying guests and a freshwater pool. We thought about it, but there were a few too many people and way too hot to get into a hot spring pool. We took a pass. It didn’t help that the smell from the springs was sulfuric, putting one in mind of Greenfield or Hazelwood during the steel mill hey days. This place was nicely laid out and sold people on reconnecting with nature, which is great. But we were already well connected without the massages.

On the way back from the resort, we stopped at Salmon Cascades, a rocky whitewater area where salmon migrate to spawn. This section of stream was accessed through a woodsy, cathedral-like area filled with 200-foot Douglas fir, redwoods and other pine variations. This side trip was worth the whole trip to the Sol Duc area.

When we returned to camp, found an Airstream with a Durango tow vehicle, like ours, parked right next to us. Bruce and Ann, nice folks, were from southern Oregon and gave out some good info on southwest US winter havens. Bruce shot a moose up in Canada earlier in the year and gave us a 5-lb. frozen package of ground moose. Said it’s good stuff --- real lean, lots of protein and doesn’t taste at all like chicken. We’ll cook it up later in the trip. This is one of the reasons we like this camp stuff -- you never really know who you’re gonna meet.