Ruby Beach. Olympic Peninsula

After the forest, we began to move smoothly towards home. The first stop is an hour later - Ruby Beach. Along it there are cliffs reminiscent of Cannon Beach in Oregon. 6 kilometers from the shore there is an island, which was previously called "Green", and now "Destruction Island". It is a home for seabirds and mammals. The Hoh Indians used it to catch puffins. Unfortunately, in recent years their population has begun to decrease due to habitat loss and attacks by eagles.

The island also has a 45m high lighthouse, built in 1891. In April 2008, it stopped lighting the way for sailors.

The next stop is the Tree of Life and Ptushkin's treasure. A little north of Ruby Beach there is a campsite and a restaurant, in the bushes near which Ptushkin buried the treasure in April 2018 when they came to Seattle (yes, the treasure is buried 300 km from Seattle itself). We found the bushes, and the treasure had long been dug up - even the clearing there was trampled.

There is that very tree next to this campsite. Due to erosion, the soil has gone right from under the tree. Its roots hang in the air and try to cling to the edges of the crevice. It holds on, despite strong winds and storms. Healthy trees fall, but this one holds on.

40 minutes by car - and we are at Lake Quinault, lying in a valley carved by glaciers and which belongs to the Quinault Indians. Nearby is a rain forest of the same name, but we did not have time to walk in it, and it was hot. On the shore there is a hotel where we wanted to have a snack with a view of the lake, but everything in the entire village was closed.

So we stopped in the town of Hoquiam (another 45 minutes) to have a snack at a brewery. It borders Aberdeen, and the border between them is not even particularly noticeable. Then - an hour to Olympia, an hour in a traffic jam, and another hour in the beginning smoke (thank goodness the traffic jam and the smoke weren’t at the same time).

Our YouTube video

Happy visiting Ruby Beach! :v: