Sol Duc Cascades

You can't see it here, but the salmon are jumping in the West End. This is the Sol Duc Cascades area, where you can watch the fish jump from only yards away, without getting your feet wet. There is a viewing area just above the rocky area in the middle of the photo, which is only yards from the road. The salmon must jump the Cascades to get to the spawning grounds. The pool in the middle is where they take a breather, wait their turn, or for whatever impetus they need to attempt the rocks. They jump over and over until they make it, never giving up, jumping each level again and again, being thrown back by the force of the water to try yet again, or to rest in the pool and wait until they have the strength to begin once more in their ambition to return home and further their species.

(Bring your cameras, but not your fishing pole - No Fishing Allowed here. Unless, of course, you are a bear or an eagle.)

Even without the drama of watching the salmon jump, the area is overflowing with towering evergreens, changing deciduous trees in blazing colors of Autumn, mossy carpeting that spreads to blanket the trees and rocks, fascinating shapes in the branches and the clouds as Nature bends them to her will, and birds calling from all around, flying from branch to branch, watching over all.

We really love living on the West End of the Olympic Peninsula.