Do you know what Mt. Olympus looks like?

What is this?? "It's a mystery!"

While I was in living as a volunteer in China, the United States Peace Corps took us on a trip to a place called “sanxingdui” which means “Three Stars Mound”. This trip was supposed to give us an insight to the 5,000 years of civilization in the Chengdu area of South Central China. While culturally impressive, we as a group became increasingly frustrated at the museum and it’s explanations of artifacts and their significance. Every time we asked a question that was a little deeper than common knowledge, our guides would smile, shrug and answer us by saying “It is a mystery!” While this may have appeased me when I was a kid, as a twenty something, I wanted more knowledge.

The earliest picture of Mt. Olympus, taken in 1913

I tell this story because recently I was in a conversation for a local podcast * and realized that the Olympic Mountains signature mountain is basically a mysterious entity, surrounded by peaks, rain forests, rivers and stream. Few people have seen and are not able to recognize the mountain when their eyes fall upon it.  Mt. Olympus is much like the artifacts at that Chinese museum. Mt. Olympus exists. People have climbed it and people have camped by it. Pictures exist of the mountain, but even pulling up a Google image search of the mountain leaves much to be desired. If Mt. Rainier can generate millions of images and many many dollars of sales for posters, why can't Mt. Olympus be the same? Mt. Olympus needs to not be a mystery, but the peak that attracts people worldwide to the Olympic Peninsula!

Is this the Face of The Olympic National Park?

Mt. Olympus, the highest point on the Olympic Peninsula, stands at 7,960 feet, yet there is not an iconic image floating around, sitting in picture frames around the world. I refuse to believe that this mountain isn’t picturesque! The Olympic Peninsula needs a signature view; we need to make Mt. Olympus the Pacific Northwest’s version of Yosemite’s Half Dome. We need to get images for the world to see of our mountains, our rainforest, and OUR national park. We need to let the people in desert countries see the millions of greens that make up the forest, the people in Europe need to see Mountains that rival the Alps and the people of Asia need to experience the sheer beauty that the pristine, untouched Olympic National Park possesses.

This is why, with great excitement, that I am pleased to announce a once in a lifetime opportunity with Exotic Hikes. For readers of this blog, I am offering a photography trip deep into the Olympic National Park to capture the beauty that the peninsula is keeping secret from the rest of the world. If you make it to the Olympia area, I will provide transportation to some of the most amazing places in the world. Contact us today!

You know you want to join us!!

 I want to take pictures of the mountains and high alpine lakes that will entice visitors from around the world to come and experience something unique, something beautiful, something that we all love, The Olympic National Park. 

Interested Parties should email or call us!

Email: exotichikes@gmail.com

Phone:
(360)350-8938

Hope to see you on the trails,

Douglas Scott 

Exotic Hikes

* Listen to the Whole Podcast here: http://einmaleins.tv/episode/no_one_knows_what_mt._olympus_look_like

Is the Olympic National Park Going to be your Summer Fling?

Entry to Dosewallips

Cape Flattery

With summer just around the corner, there is a huge park in the Northwestern part of America, specifically, the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, just waiting for you to visit it. Yes, I know, Yellowstone is also waiting, tempting you,  with its hot geothermal features and wildlife. I see that Moab is also flirting with you, trying to get your attention with its smooth sandstone, hot summer days and clear night skies. Yosemite is also on the line, with its California accent trying to entice you with its history, rocks and waterfalls. The Grand Canyon is vying for your attention, flirting at you with rafting trips, sweeping vistas and uniqueness. They are all vying for your attention, your affection, your love and desire, but up here in the northwest, we are playing it coy and are being a little shy.

Storm King

Devil's Punchbowl, Lake Crescent

You see, the Olympic Peninsula is unique,esoteric and still surrounded with mystery. It is isolated and isn’t romantic in society yet. The Olympic National Park is a bit scared to have so many visitors hiking it trails, camp in its campgrounds, climb its peaks, explore its waterfalls and enjoy the diversity that it offers. The Olympic National Park is the park next door, the location often over looked because you are used to it, or maybe you just haven’t seen it in the right setting. This summer, the Olympic National Park wants you to visit, get to know it, and hopefully fall in love.

Moss, Fungi and Ferns

The Rainforest

You may be asking yourself, “What does the Olympic National Park have to offer that we can’t get from one of those other parks?” We know what the other parks are working with, as they strut their goods on National TV with endless documentaries dedicated to how great they are and how everyone needs to experience them. The Olympic National Park has been around long enough to know how to show off its assets. From stunning beaches where you can camp, beachcomb, watch sea life and experience beautiful sunsets, to its peaks jutting up in the air, rising from rainforest canopies dense with moss and large Jurassic Park looking ferns this park will keep your enchanted with it.

Marymere Falls

Tide pool at Ruby Beach

 With so many animal species, so much to see, so much uniqueness, and so much to be in awe about, this park is the park you can grow old with and/or come back to, summer after summer. Remember the first time you saw the view at Hurricane Ridge, the rocks at Shi Shi beach, and the Hall of Mosses at the Hoh Rainforest. Maybe years from now, you will flash back to the first time you saw Mt. Olympus, or stayed the night at the Chalet in the Enchanted Valley. Maybe these will be the memories you share with your grandkids, years from now, reminiscing about the uncharted depths of Lake Crescent or glissading down Mt. Ellinor with Exotic Hikes. The Olympic Park wants you to fall in love, wants your visits and wants you to know, that no matter how crowded it gets in years to come, you will always have a special place in its heart.  

Pony Bridge on the way to Enchanted Valley

The Hoh Rainforest

Yellowstone, Yosemite, Moab and the Grand Canyon won’t remember you when you are gone. To them, you are just another number, another visitor and another notch on their entry gate. I love the Olympic National Park, and it loves me back, as I am sure it will love you. It is true, pure and consistent. It may be rugged at times, hard to get to know in places, but once you are lucky enough to experience the Olympic National Park, it will be the love of your life. 

Douglas Scott

Exotic Hikes

(360)350-8938

Why I Hike

                After being asked this question nearly every day, I decided I would finally put these words down on record, hopefully inspiring some for you to discuss your reasons for hiking. I also do this in hope that my story, like your stories, will get passed down through the generations, building hiking up for future adventurers.

Mt. Erie, Wa

I remember my first hike, years ago on Deception Pass. Well, I wouldn’t call it a hike. I remember getting shoulder rides and carried by both my parents during this hot summer day. I must have been 5 or 6 years old, but being out in the woods with my family made me happy at that young age. I felt safe, I felt a sense of adventure, and above all, I felt loved by my parents and nature.

My home away from Washington

I have always had a life where I was connected to the outdoors, from family birding trips and day hikes, to travelling to national parks around the country and visiting Yellowstone for 10 straight years, nature has been in my veins. At the age of 13 I did my first long hike across the Olympic Peninsula. Taking 7 days and carrying a pack of 55 pounds when I only weighed like 105 (long story for a later date); we explored and connected with nature. At the age of 19 I left college at worked near Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Having three days off a week gave me time to explore so many areas that I almost decided then and there to never go back to a city or a college. Instead, I left, went back to school, graduated and soon was serving 2 years in China with the Peace Corps. I would have to say that China is where hiking went from a hobby to an obsession.

The Great Wall of China

If you ever go to China, you will be told repeatedly that they have over 5000 years of culture. This is more than likely true, and for some is viewed as a great achievement. However, in my 2 years there, I realized that all the roads, trails and forests I was walking in, 5000 years’ worth of people have been traversed same area. It was then and there that I realized just how special the Olympic Peninsula is. Yes, there is a history of peoples here for tens of thousands of years, but the area is so rugged and underdeveloped that it gives you the sense that you are out there exploring an area untouched my humans. China did not give me that impression at all, so upon my return, I vowed to explore the mountains as often as I could.

The Grand Tetons from Jackson, Wy

When I returned from China, personal struggles and family illness took over, and hiking fell away for a while. However, whenever I would feel that life was just putting too much on my plate and I was near my breaking point, I would take a hike, and drift back into the woods where the only reality was the one I was in. Hiking became my safe place, my happy place, my place of healing. Being alone on a mountain, sitting along an alpine lake and being able to finally get away from the distractions of life to focus on getting in touch with nature and myself is my therapy. The repetitive steps trudging down a path, up a hillside of scree or wading through a river all take focus away from the pains and sorrow that life so often brings and allows you to be alive.

Finding the meaning of life, Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park

Hiking to me gives a sense of adventure that I thought was long since lost when I became an adult. Hiking to me is about experiencing nature on a holistic level. Mountains that appear as one become individual rocks and dirt; tall cedar trees become vulnerable strips of bark, needles and branches, all working together to form this massive plant. Much like those, hiking has taught me that my life isn’t as complex as I make it. Life is a series of small parts coming together to become what we perceive as reality, yet, just like a hike, some parts are easier than others, but no less important. Hiking has allowed me to see life for what it is and have a new level of enjoyment in every activity. Without hiking, I don’t know where I would be in life. Luckily, hiking is always there for me, and when I lace up my boots, strap on my backpack and take that first step, all the worry in the world drifts away and I get to become innocent and adventurous again.

So, that is why I hike...how about you????

See you on the trails,

Douglas Scott

Exotic Hikes

The Nerd Side of Hiking

"A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away..."

A very small amount of gear.

Today is Pi (3.14) day, and while Pi day has little to do with hiking, it does allow an outlet for a topic I has been bouncing around in my head for the last few months. The topic, of course, is hiking, more specifically, hikers and their personalities. If you ponder this for a few minutes, you will start to see that as hikers and climbers, we are quite nerdy. We read topographical maps, scrounge around for secret spots in guidebooks, and even collect climbing gear, shoes and backpacks like they are “Magic the Gathering” Cards.  What may seem like a natural juxtaposition, pitting people who climb mountains and hike for hours, demonstrating their outdoor skills against Trekkers, Star Wars fans and Dungeons and Dragon players who typically stay indoors, is actually something that has more in common than most would guess.

Being a nerd has so many connotations, yet, we all have aspects of our hiking selves that are quite nerdy. If you have guidebook with sections underlined, most hikers will agree that they do too. Yet, to the outside world, highlighting passages in books is historically quite a nerdy thing to do. We bury ourselves in books, researching routes, trails, and are frequently monitoring weather conditions. Climbing and hiking is a science, and in some ways, we are all scientists of nature. I know for me, I love reading topographical maps, I love getting deep into old trail guides, or finding that map that has abandoned mines and locations of forests service roads long since overgrown. Friends of mine have so many pairs of shoes, so many books, maps and climbing equipment that they don’t have room for furniture in their house. Yet, despite the fact that the majority of us do quite a bit of research and study to be good hikers and climbers, society doesn’t see it as nerdy since we are outside and don’t mind getting dirty.

Topo Map of the SW Side of Mt. Olympus

Society views climbers and hikers as people who rough it, people who are in touch with nature and true or not are usually manly, rough and maybe even tough. I am here to say that while we may be exactly that (I sure know I am), we are also in touch with nature and our inner nerd. Case and point is looking at how a hiker coexists with nature. We eat healthy foods, leave no trace and more often than not, will take some time and meditate by a river, on a cliff or deep in the woods. In fact, looking at the definition of the word “nerd” it states that nerds are “an intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.” While I take some offense at the single minded section of this definition, I have a lot of climber friends who could be the picture next to the word.

Personally, I am a nerd on all fronts. I have an R2D2 climbing helmet, maps all over my bedroom walls, a car full of a week’s worth of supplies and even a ring (my precious) that has Darth Vader on it. I make references to Star Wars and Back to the Future on a daily bases, yet I know how to start fires with no matches and know edible plants along trails. Let’s face it, hikers and climbers are huge nerds. The majority have a blog, a twitter account that we update regularly and Facebook pages where we stay in the loop. We use our smart phone to take pictures, or the latest in wearable cameras to document everything we do. We have stacks of books, piles of gear and more pairs of shoes than we would like to admit. We geek out on climbing videos, typically avoid mainstream music and some of us get amazing farmer’s tans. We are all nerds, and it is time, especially on this day of Pi, to embrace it and wear the badge proudly.

Next time you are in the woods, specifically the Olympic Peninsula’s amazingly dense rainforest, picture yourself with Ewoks, battling storm troopers and taking down the evil empire. Read the guidebook like Yoda, try to use the force to get your backpack on instead of doing that awkward squat lean that we all do.

May the Force be with you and see you on the trails I will!

Douglas Scott,

Exotic Hikes

Best. Helmet. EVER!