We stayed four nights in Olympic National Park’s Sol Duc campground, a remote hideaway adjacent to natural hot spring pools and the energetic Sol Duc River that was swollen with spring’s snowmelt.
We’ve been happy for months tromping around coastlines and mountains, rivers and deserts. But really? Hot springs? Who wants that?
It turns out, we did. Our skepticism melted away as soon as our toes first dipped into one of the three steamy, soaking pools. The temperatures ranged from 98º to a ferocious 105.7º, hot enough for even Rachel.
Whether after a day hiking up to the magnificent and torrential Sol Duc Falls or a drive to the chilly Hurricane Ridge, we found that an hour in those those hot spring pools was the perfect end to our days in this towering landscape.
But before earning the soak time, we first had to get out in the world and capture it on camera, including the impressive, 48-foot falls and the salmon cascades along the namesake Sol Duc River.
At every turn in this valley in late spring you find falls roaring over steep drops, cascades weaving around moss-covered stones, or cheerful brooks babbling along the trail as the Olympic Mountains shed their snowy winter mantles.
The Sol Duc river full of spring runoff from the snowy Olympic mountain tops. 
Bunchberries were in bloom everywhere! 
Another cascade weaves its way through moss-covered stones. 
Dappled sunlight on a trail through the woods. 
A rain shelter for backwoods campers in case of big storms. 
The Sol Duc is a major salmon run in the autumn. In a few months, the fish will be leaping up and over this cascade to their spawning territories upstream. 
A wooden walkway formed part of our trail through the wet rainforest. 
Teeny mushrooms growing on a log. 
A glimpse of a chipmunk through the ferns. 
Glenn decides this spot is too small to climb into. 
Sol Duc Falls – a triple falls roughly 50-feet high. The roar from the water makes conversation dificult here. 
Rachel at a brige over a small peaceful cascade. 
Selfie at a cascade feeding into the Sol Duc River.