Mother Nature as Teacher—My Trip to Olympic National Park

I left, with my family, for Olympic National Park on May 26, 2007 around 2 PM, from where we live (Issaquah, WA, U.S.A.). Olympic National Park, is located near the city of Port Angeles in the state of Washington, U.S.A., northwest of Seattle on Highway 101. We reached the location around 6:30 PM, including the wait time for boarding the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry. We stayed overnight at the hotel.

Hurricane Ridge

We started off first to Hurricane Ridge (about 5200 ft from sea level) from where we got a closer view of the peaks of the Olympic Mountain Range. It was about 30 mins., car ride one-way from the park’s entrance. What a ride it was! When we started off it was bright and sunny and as we ascended it started becoming dark as the clouds started descending. There were low lying clouds and we drove through those clouds as we ascended the mountains. I experienced a great feeling of freedom as we drove through the clouds as if our car was a flying charriot of the gods (pushpaka vimAna).

On our ascent to the top (as far as the car can go) we had glimpses of the snow covered peaks of the Olympic Mountains. After we reached the top, the view was just breathtaking and magnificent to say the least. The enormity and grandeur of the mountain ranges just hit me. The photos shown here don’t do justice at all. As a manifest life this body is just a tiny speck compared to the manifestation of life as those gigantic mountains. It was a very humbling experience.

For a few moments my mind seemed to have stopped. During those moments, we saw a few Black Tailed Deer strutting away from where we were standing. Without any other thought, I just projected a single thought, “Hey! Deer why don’t you come back and pose for me. I want to take photograph of you.” I repeated this, mentally, a couple of times with full focus at the center of my head (the third eye, or Agnya chakra area), not thinking of anything else. As it were, the deer just stopped turned back and looked straight into my eyes. I just froze, not fully realizing what had just happened. The deer just turned back and walked straight toward me to my utter amazement. It posed for me for a few seconds and I took a few photographs and one of which is given below. This an example of psychic communication we are all capable of and a possible evidence that we are all connected and are threads in the fabric of the universe.

I was also able to take few pictures of its companion and I present a photograph below.

Lake Crescent

Next we visited Lake Crescent. From Hurricane Ridge, we had to come back to the entrance of the park and take Highway 101. It took us about 30 mins., after we got on to 101. This is a very serene and beautiful lake. It displayed changing colors of greens, blues, and oranges and reds in some places. Water was so clear that the bottom could be clearly seen.

As you may have noticed, I have now used a cropped version of the following photograph for the masthead of this blog. The green was so beautiful and pleasing that I had to. 🙂

In Conclusion…

One of the things we missed due to lack of time was the Hoh Rain Forest and waterfalls there. Nor could we stay at the lake longer because we had to head back home. We have decided that next time, we will stay at the Lake Crescent Lodge right on the banks of the lake, so we could spend more time there.

If you are on the path of spirituality and wishing to be enlightened, get connected with Mother Nature. She is a great teacher and she teaches us in silence. She teaches us to be light and hearty, to be curious and in awe of everything we encounter, and not be serious and gloomy. Every mountain, stream, lake, tree and animal teaches us, how to be present, and just be. And, how to fully surrender to the ever flowing life and be free of fear. Even if you are not explicitly on the path of spirituality, it is a great way to keep your mind and body in sync, which is the goal of spiritual practices, anyway. 🙂