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Around here at Ready Set Depart. We love National Parks, so I'm starting a new series called Why You Need To Go There - National Park Edition. 

I want to start with Olympic National Park. Olympic National Park is in Washington State, upper left, on the Olympic Peninsula. It covers nearly a million acres from temperate rainforest to beach. It has it all. 

So let's talk about why you need to go there. These are in no specific order. 

Reason number one that you need to go to the Olympic National Park is the Hoh Rainforest. That's spelled h o h. There's some discussion on where that name came from, but it's named after the Hoh River, which arguably, is named for the Quinault word for river. So that one makes the most sense to me, but there's a lot of other theories where the name comes from. 

It is hard to paint a picture of how beautiful Hoh Rainforest is, but I'm going to try. Imagine big trees with moss covering them. Imagine so soft trails that are a little bit squishy. Imagine the scent of rain and woods and fresh air. Hoh Rainforest is amazing. 

According to the National Park website, Hoh Rainforest can get 140 inches of rain in the winter. It is one of the last temperate rainforests in the United States, and the best example in the lower 48. 

You should go to the whole rainforest for some of the easy hikes that others would say would be walks through the forest. It's on the cooler side, so even if it's hot, underneath the trees, it's nice and temperate there. And you should go because of the grandeur of nature. 

Reason number two that you need to go to the Olympic National Park is Hurricane Ridge. Hurricane Ridge is on the north end of the park. You drive up this mountain, hike up over a little hill and you can see forever. It really does feel that way. On a clear day, you can easily see Canada, but it's those not so clear days that make it even more beautiful.

When we were there, the clouds were basically crawling over the mountains. It was almost ethereal. 

In the summer, there are beautiful wildflowers up there, and in the winter you can go snowshoeing. Not that I've done that, but I've heard that people like it. 

Reason number three to go to Olympic National Park Trees. Some of you may not find this as interesting as I do, but there are some pretty awesome trees in the Olympic National Park. We saw trees with blankets of moss. We saw trees that looked kind of like deer. We saw nurse logs. We saw where nurse logs used to be.

Now, these trees are not as big as the redwoods, but they're still pretty impressive. They're predominantly Douglas fir trees that can grow to about 200 feet tall. 

So definitely come for the trees. 

Reason number four for visiting Olympic National Park is beaches. Now, when I say beaches, I don't want you to think Hawaii or even California. These beaches in the Olympic National Park are mostly sandy beaches, which is unusual for Washington, but they are rarely warm.

You can often tell the people who have never been to Washington before because they're the ones putting their feet in the water because it's cold. 

But what the beaches have is beauty. They are often winds swept, often full of clams and just plain old, beautiful. Some of the things we love to do on Washington beaches are go fly kites or beachcomb or honestly sit under a blanket and then just enjoy the view.

Another thing on the Washington beaches is driftwood. And when I say driftwood, I don't mean branches of trees. I mean like whole trees. We went to Kalaloch Beach one time and had to scramble over 20 feet of trees to get to the beach. 

But then we've been there other times where those trees weren't there, so you might be able to find some driftwood, but you might not be able to get at home.

Reason number five, to visit the Olympic National Park. Sasquatch. Yep, that's right. Everyone's favorite crypted, the Sasquatch, or as he's often called Bigfoot, is often seen in the Olympic National Park. In fact, that's where most sightings of Sasquatch have been lately. So if you're into trying to find Bigfoot, you are going to love it here.

And so do the locals. You'll often see "Bigfoot" around in the form of statues. 

Reason number six to go to the Olympic National Park Sol Duc Hot Springs. Who doesn't love a good hot springs? And Sol Duc Hot Springs is a great one. Just outside of the National Park is a lodge where they've made it into almost a pool, but it is the hot springs.

And not only in Sol Duc can you find hot springs, but there is also a really easy and lovely hike to the Sol Duc waterfalls. It's totally easy for little feet and gives you some beautiful views. 

Reason number seven for going to Olympic National Park is it has something for everyone. If you love mountains and hiking, it's there. If you love the beach, albeit again, not a warm beach, it's there and everything in between. It's a big park. But if you have enough days, you can do just about anything that anyone in your family might love. You can go hiking in the mountains one day and the next day, drive to the beach. And don't forget Sol Duc Hot springs. And don't forget Hoh Rainforest. 

Reason number eight to visit Olympic National Park, Forks. Now, some of you made me wondering what I'm talking about. Forks is a little town on the Olympic Peninsula. It's not technically in the Park, but you have to drive through it to get to parts of the park, and it is where Twilight was filmed.

Now, if you don't know what Twilight is, it was a teenybopper sort of, uh, book series in the early two thousands that was made into a series of movies. Wildly popular and Forks loves to show off the fact that they are the place where the vampires and werewolves are. So you can visit Bella's house, you can visit Bella's car, you can visit the beach where the werewolves live. It is definitely a fun place to stop in and around Olympic National Park. 

Reason number nine to visit the Olympic National Park are Roosevelt Elk. Now, if you don't love animals as much as me and my family do, this may not be a huge draw for you, but if you do, let me tell you about the Roosevelt Elk.