September 11-12, 2023: A 45-Minute Rollercoaster? (Oh yeah, and Tidepooling too!)

On Monday, we pulled into Port Angeles, WA and enjoyed driving around the city for a

while. After finding a small park for the little boys to play while we made supper, we settled

down for the night at a Walmart near where we could catch the shuttle to take us up to

Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park the following morning.

Expecting it to be a less stressful ride than the Going-To-The-Sun-Road for certain family

members, little were we prepared for the extreme curves the road to the ridge featured. We

sat in the back of the bus, which we actually got all to ourselves, and quickly realized we were

in for a 45-minute rollercoaster ride. By the end, Mom was a bit of an emotional wreck and

both parents were nauseated. Personally, I thought it was a blast and looked forward to the trip back down. Once our crew recovered from the drive up, we layered on the coats to protec against the brisk wind and began exploring the Ridge. (In an unfortunate accident, the popular Hurricane Ridge Lodge burned down in May, so there was a lot of construction going on in the parking lot [which is actually why the park service started providing the shuttle service]).

At an elevation of 4,242 feet, the scenic views were stunning…at least until the fog set

in. We did an approximate 2-mile hike up to Sunset point, which was somewhat precarious,

especially for those in the family who do not like hikes! The weather declined rapidly during the couple hours we were there, so we opted out of further exploration and instead hunkered

down behind a sheltering grove of trees until the next shuttle arrived. In our attempt to stay

warm, we might have busted out a few moves/dances on the trail, such as the Bunny Hop,

Hokie-Poky, and grapevine stepping… some family members participating more than others ;)

After another 45-minute ride down, which surprisingly wasn’t as exhilarating as the trip

up, we safely returned to sea level. On our walk back to where we’d parked Kram-A-Lot Inn, we made an exciting discovery… WILD BLACKBERRIES!!!!! - growing right alongside the city

sidewalk and an extremely busy road through town. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to

grab some, so there we were, cars whizzing by probably 30 feet from our backsides, picking

from the abundance of berries! Once we discovered these particular bushes, we suddenly

started noticing them in other areas on the walk back to the RV. By the time we were done

picking, we had a big bowl of them. Let me just say, vanilla ice cream with wild blackberries and hot fudge is incredible!

We spent the night at Salt Creek Recreation Area Campground so that it would be easy

to embark on our next adventure early the next morning…tide-pooling!

The lowest tide occurred at 7:45am, so everyone got up between 7:00-7:15am to get

ready. This was a little rough on some of us who had been up enjoying our midnight visitors

(see here for a post on that escapade in the life of the D-Team). Not surprisingly, we made it to

the beach at around 8:00am, later than we had planned (y’all who know us know we have a

tendency to be late, LOL). It was a lot of fun... and that’s coming from me, who does not like

science. It was fascinating to be searching for and examining in real life what we learned about in books (quite a few years ago, for some of us) While we weren’t able to identify everything at the time, we picked up a tide-pool field guide later in the day, and figured out what all we found…except a few creatures. I’ll post the pictures at the bottom of this post, extra reader points to anyone who can tell us what they are. :)

First up, our biggest and easiest discovery was the California Mussels. There were

hundreds upon thousands of these. Areas of the rocks were so packed full that tide-poolers are

forced to walk on them. They can be up to 6 inches long and will glue themselves to the rock

using bundles of thin, sticky threads, and they won’t let go easily. I tried to pull one up for

closer inspection, and that little guy refused to come free. They eat plankton and are eaten by

sea stars, birds, crabs, and carnivorous snails (Cool! Never knew there were snails that are

carnivorous.)

Next up, and my personal favorite discovery…Ochre sea stars! We found three or four

bright orange ones in various places, and a large green one hiding under a rock. The ones we

found were all pretty small, but Ochres can grow an arm span of up to 13 inches. Their arms are lined with hundreds of tube feet that have powerful suction cups on their tips. These sea stars will wrap their arms around a mussel and slowly, but surely pull them open to feed on the

inside. In addition to mussels, they also will eat barnacles, snails and limpets. Their only

predator, other than curious tide-poolers, are birds who love a colorful and tasty snack.

The little boys were super excited to find the Lined Shore Crabs scuttling around the

rocks and pools. Around 3 inches in size, these little algae and carrion eaters can hunt both

above and below water as long as they keep their gills wet through an occasional dip. They have to be approached quietly though, as they are easily startled and will scurry beneath seaweed or into protected crevices. There are a number of birds and fish who love a nice crunchy crab for lunch.

In most low-tidal pools, green sea anemones with it’s frilly tentacle halo can be found...

leading people to believe that they are plants. Shockingly, they are actually animals that can

grow up to 10 inches. Their green color comes from the algae that lives inside of them in a

mutually beneficial arrangement. The anemone receives energy that the algae produce, and the stinging cells in the anemone’s tentacles protects the algae from predators. Green sea

anemones eat crabs, sea stars, mussels, limpets and fish. Their main predators are carnivorous

snails, fish, and nudibranchs.

These are just a few of our fascinating finds; we also found isopods, periwinkles,

barnacles, gooseneck barnacles, limpets, and aggregating anemones. We found the skeleton

shells of dead sea-urchins, including one that still had a few purple spikes on it, and TONS of sea lettuce (salad anyone?) We also found these four creatures that we haven't been able to identify...anyone have any ideas as to what they are?

We could have spent much longer exploring these ocean wonders, but by around 9:45am, it was time to pack up and hit the road for Hoh Rainforest, where more incredible natural wonders waited to boggle our mid-westerner minds.

Until next time, God bless!