Damon Point

It was expected to be 80 degrees in town, so naturally, we need to get away from the scorching heat, we head to the coast where it is always 10 degrees cooler and windy.  There's a loop on wta.org called Damon's Point. Although there are a couple rustic-weather beaten park type signs, this "hike" is more of a free for all, just walk around type of deal.

It was only 4 miles, but walking in the sand sure works some muscles that don't get as  every day attention. It was beautiful and quiet. An area of Ocean Shores that not many people venture too.

Staircase Rapids

 To begin the 2013 hiking season...wait...to begin our first hiking season ever...we chose an easy 4 mile hike at Staircase Rapids. At only 950ft elevation we knew that we at least would not have to worry about running into snow, which is another reason this hike makes for a great spring hike. Being Julie and my first hike together, we learned a lot about hiking on this first trip.

First and foremost, we learned that Julie is well prepared for everything. She had band-aids, solarcaine, snacks, and a blanket for us to sit on while we ate lunch.

 

 The four mile loop is indicated on the lower section of the map, there are longer hikes available, pack your tent and sleeping bag if you want to make a night of it at one of the many campsites thru the area. We learned that 4 miles was pretty easy for us to do, we were kind of wishing we had taken a little longer route.

The trail runs along the North Fork Skokomish River, into Lake Cushman. I've lived in Washington my entire life, and I've never seen water as clear as it was in this river. The scenery was absolutely beautiful.

We didn't see a lot of flowers, but the ones we did were delicately low to the ground.

 





While alive and standing tall, it's easy to appreciate the monstrosity of Washington's fir trees, but sometimes it's hard to grasp just how enormous the trees are until you get up close and personal with them.

  Along with really big trees in the rainforest, there are exceptionally large rock formations.

 We crossed several bridges along the way, the first, a man made bridge crossing the river, the others were more rustic and tested our balancing skills.

We stopped at Lake Cushman on the way out.
A quiet, peaceful setting for a last look before driving back to civilization.