24th Day: Olympic National Park 2: 07/15/2018

The Olympic National Park is truly spectacular. Yesterday we were in the high mountains, with alpine views and hikes among deer and mountain animals. Today, we drove along the Olympic Peninsula for two hours to explore another part of the national park: a pretty cool and wonderful beach.

We saw seals, a dolphin, lots of driftwood, small islands sticking out of the water. It's no wonder the beach is called Rialto Bridge.

We had a blast just walking along the water and in the water.

After our now obligatory picnic at noon, we were so cold that Marvin even turned on the heating in the car for a while.

We were amazed when after another hour of driving in a third part of the national park, we suddenly had 30 degrees humid heat in the rainforest.

It's simply incredible to have so much diversity and so many different climate zones in such a tiny spot. It's like going directly from the North Sea to the tropical rainforest and then ending up at the Großglockner after half an hour. Just amazing.

In terms of vegetation, it strongly reminded us of Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island.

Speaking of the two older kids, they both participate in the Junior Ranger program every time, where they have to complete some tasks in the park and then make a vow to protect the respective nature reserve. It's really nice what the Americans do for the little ones.

Julian slept the whole day, in the car, in the carrier, no matter where we were. Let's see what the night brings, because tomorrow we will leave the Olympic Peninsula and head to Mount Rainier, the next national park on our trip.