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Olympic National Park summer bests · Mouthy Marmots of the Olympic Peninsula

• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the Mouthy Marmots Podcast, a show where nature lovers and neighbors discover untold wildlife and community news, find ways to enjoy and protect this beautiful area, and of course, have fun.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I'm Carol from Port Angeles, Washington.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: The entire Mouthy Marmot's crew presents the best nature experiences of summer in Olympic National Park and near Port Angeles, Washington.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: You never know what you're gonna discover with this group.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: I'm sad that it's almost over, but wow, we've had so much fun.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: This is Iris, and I am talking about the best bird of summer on the peninsula.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: One of the best birds of my whole peninsula birding experience, actually.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: So a white wagtail showed up out at Neah Bay, which is the coolest little black and white bird about the size of I guess it's about robin-sized, but it's a little spelter, and it runs around on the sand and it bobs its tail kind of like a dipper.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: So you know how much I love a dipper.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: So this bird showed up right before 4th of July, and I decided not to go out on the 4th of July because I thought there's no way it's gonna stay.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: It's a long drive, it's gonna be a bunch of fireworks.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: So it did stay.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: So the next week I went out and I thought this is my only chance to see the wagtail.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: I got out of the car, there it was, I spent a good half an hour with this very cool bird that typically is only in the far Arctic or Siberia.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: The funny thing is, it's still there, and people have seen it every day since.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: So if you want to see a white wagtail, go out right now.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Okay, best dog moment was Luke.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Luke the Wonder Dog.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: We were out fishing uh at around, I don't know, 6 a.m.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: And Luke is a very skittish dog, and he doesn't let you get near him.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: But once he's on the boat, he's very confident, and he stares at the rod, the fishing rod, and he knows like the second before a fish gets on there, he knows and he jumps up and he barks, and then you know to grab the rod and reel in your fish.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: This is Vanessa, and I want to share about my favorite paddle of the summer.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: We were out paddling on the harbor early one Sunday morning.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: It was kind of gray and drizzly, but the water was flat and there was no one around, and we just paddled around slowly.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: We saw so many birds.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: We saw a Pacific loon, we saw tons and tons of cormorants and um some random ducks that Iris would know the name of.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And then we went over like to the other side of the harbor where there's a lot of like industrial equipment, and there was a whole bunch of harbor seals, mommies and babies, and they looked at us with uh intense looks like you don't belong here, please leave our space.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So we turned around and we were paddling away, and I kept looking behind me, and there were always like two or three little seal heads following me and staring at me.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: So we had to get out of their zone because they didn't like us being there, but it was really special to see them uh with their babies.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Okay, this is Carol.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do best swimming every summer.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I wait and wait and wait for Lake Crescent to be warm enough to swim in.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: And it's my my pride and my joy to go out to the uh lodge, log cabin resort, and uh I park day use, it's free, and I sit by the in front of the uh log cabin resorts, they have chairs and dive into the beautiful Lake Crescent.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I just I can't tell you how much I love diving in there.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: This is Nancy.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: The category is best not a bird, and my best not a bird hike was switchback early one morning by myself, and I was getting close to the point where you go off to the left and it goes to the sunset trail, and there was a big bear up there, and I snapped a picture of it, and then I kept going.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: I was far enough away, and as I got to right where the where I had to turn right to continue on, the bear was maybe 20 feet in front of me, and I didn't know where Mama Bear was.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: This was like a juvenile, and I was a little bit scared, but I just turned right and I kept going.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: And when I turned back around, he was right where I was standing uh 30 seconds earlier, and uh it was a bit scary, but it was beautiful, and I hiked up to the top and saw a beautiful uh view, and it all ended up fine.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: I'm still here to talk about it.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: This is Iris, um, the bird nerd and hiker, and I just I want to share my best hike of the summer, and I think it's probably the best hike of a lot of people at this table summer.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: For the first time, we went from the beginning of the trail to the very end of the trail.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: And just as we were a couple of miles from the end of that trail, who should show up but Carol, our fearless Mouthy Marmot producer and podcast host.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: And she had this tremendous spread of snacks, and what I would also say is the best beer of the summer that I had.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: The iciest, cold, like fruitiest, tropicalist IPA.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: How many miles did you hike?
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: Oh my gosh.
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: We must have hiked about 20 .
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: It felt like 20, but I think it was like seven, seven hard miles.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Best hike, best friends, best beer.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Hi, this is Vanessa, and I think my best hike, there were so many good ones, but I think the best one was the one we kicked off summer with.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: The whole group of us, Mouthy Marmots, drove on out west, and we did the Ozette Triangle hike, and it was a beautiful day.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: It was Memorial Day weekend, so it was really the kickoff of summer, and it was the first of so many beautiful hikes, but this one was amazing, and we got to see the petroglyphs on Wedding Rock, and that was really special, and it was just a gorgeous, gorgeous day, and then we had some some good snacks too.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: So best tide pool experience.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: I always watch the tide charts for minus tides, and we had a big minus tide this summer, so I headed out to my favorite tide pool at Salt Creek County Park, just outside Port Angeles.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: And I had also just listened to this National Public Radio story about critically endangered sunflower sea stars.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: They're massive with 24 arms, and they're a keystone speak species that climate change has really affected.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Ocean has gotten warmer, and a sea star wasting disease is killing them.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: So there I was, it was sunny.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I was out at Salt Creek looking into my favorite, favorite tide pool, and I saw a sunflower sea star swimming by.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: And moments later, in another tide pool, I saw a little octopus.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I sat forever to watch both until my butt hurt from sitting on those rocks with all those uh all those muscles.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: That was my best tide pool experience ever.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: For me, you can't get better than camping for summer fun.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And uh this 2026 camping season has been no exception.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: My absolute favorite camping trip this summer was over the 4th of July weekend to Heart of the Hills Campground in Olympic National Park.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: We're fortunate that we live only five miles from that campground.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And we went up there with a group of our friends and neighbors who all had dogs.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So it turned out to be a wonderful experience, primarily because we were so close we could come home for the best of home while enjoying the best of camping.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Get a hot shower at home in the morning, make a hot breakfast, go back up to the campsite, read a book, have dinner with friends, and our dogs really appreciated not having the firework noise.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Despite the illegality of fireworks in Port Angeles, they're very common and it just sends our dogs over the edge.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So um we had a good time.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And it was actually my best camping experience of the summer.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: It was wonderful.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: The best lunar moment that almost wasn't.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: So every summer, Olympic National Park has a night sky program and full moon hikes up at Hurricane Hill.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Well, this year a friend and I headed up to do the full moon hike and see the lunar eclipse.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: And as we drove up that windy hill to Hurricane Ridge, at 5,000 feet the fog was pretty thick.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: But we decided, let's do the hurricane hill hike anyway.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Maybe we'll uh get up and out of the fog.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: But it got thicker and thicker.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: So finally we decided that hiking up at 5,000 feet through thick fog with all these other people looking for the eclipse was enough of an adventure.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: And we left.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: But as we headed a few miles back down, the fog went away, and there it was, the lunar eclipse, bright orange and spectacular, shining in these really clear dark skies.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: And Diane, who's ever so articulate, said something about how during eclipses everything is in alignment.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: The sun, the moon, the earth, and us.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: So night skies at Olympic National Park are an experience in more ways than one.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: The best stargazing of the summer.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: We're so fortunate here on the peninsula to live near Hurricane Ridge, which has some of the best dark sky around.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So every year the Perseid Meteor Shower happens.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: And every year, at the height of the Perseid Meteor Shower, Carol and I hop in our van and drive up to Hurricane Ridge to see the Perseids.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: We moved here in 2020, and that summer was a fabulous Perseid year.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And since then it's kind of been off and on.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: So we went up there and lo and behold, the wildfire smoke from the area had had drifted into Hurricane Ridge.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: It wasn't so bad down in Port Angeles where we live, but it was really thick up on the ridge.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So we once again had to come back down having missed the Perseids.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: But as I always tell Carol, I know the Perseids are there whether I can see them or not.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: And the most beautiful times that we've seen them live in memory as just being spectacular.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So I think that was the best stargazing of the summer almost.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: Alright, it's Nancy and Iris.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Here we are.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Here we are together.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, what a shock.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: Let's talk about our best sauce watch story.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: Well, we know what that was.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: If you want to hear about our best sausquet story, you have to look at the Mouthy Marmot archives and find.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: I don't know what episode it is, but Carol will find out and tell you.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Just listen to all of them because they're really funny.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, every single episode is the best episode of Mouthy Marmot.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: The funny ones are when we're on it.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Oh, for sure.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: And I also want to say that the best podcast on the peninsula has got to be the Mouthy Marmots.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: I would agree with that, Iris.
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: 100%.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: What does everybody think?
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: How about a cheers?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Cheers! Mouthy Marmots.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: When you wander into nature, you just never know what you'll discover.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: But the one thing you can be sure of is that you'll find some peace.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: And this summer we lost the poet Wendell Berry.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Who says it the best.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Here he is.
• 14:08
  Speaker: The peace of wild things.
• 14:11
  Speaker: When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound, in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be.
• 14:23
  Speaker: I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
• 14:31
  Speaker: I come into the peace of wild things, who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
• 14:40
  Speaker: I come into the presence of still water, and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light.
• 14:50
  Speaker: For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: That was uh Wendel Berry.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Thanks for National Public Radio for that recording.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Now when you go to the woods to find that piece, don't forget to carry a whistle, maybe a notebook, maybe a sketchpad, and most importantly, don't forget to come back out, renewed and ready to keep up the good fight, whether it's saving Lake Ontario, protecting our immigrant neighbors, or stopping climate change.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: We lost Dolly Parton this summer too, and as she said, mistreating Mother Nature is like being ugly to your mama.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I know you listeners have a summer best, something you saw or experienced in the outdoors.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Take a moment to share that with friends.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Brag a little.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Be in community.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: And have a great day.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: The Mouthy Marmots Collective acknowledges that the lands we broadcast from are the appropriated homelands of six tribal nations who continue to care for this region today, including the Ho, Jamestown Sklalam, Lower El wha Klallam, Makah, Quileute, and Quinault tribes.