Olympic National Park

We spent that night before heading into the park at Deception Pass State Park.  We got there at sunset and had our fairy scheduled for first thing in the morning.  We wish we would have planned more time there.  Taking the bridges and the view around Fidalgo Island and Rosario Beach were incredible.  We only had time to drive through so we could get camp set up before dark, but the drive was incredible.  The kids were all glued to the windows.  We loved it!!

We were moving again the next morning before the kids woke up to get to the fairy.  We took the RV from Fort Casey to Port Townsend on a fairy to get to the Olympic Peninsula.  The kids LOVED it! 

Leaving early in the morning gave us time to explore Olympic National Park all day.  We went to Hurracane Ridge where we viewed glaciers through telescopes and saw wild life that didn’t seem so wild. Hurracane Ridge is a really scenic and steep drive.  We were above the clouds on the mountaintop. 

Lake Creasent was along the way and we stopped to jump in of course.  The beauty is indescribable.  

Our final adventure for the day was Sol Doc Falls.  It was about a mile hike through the rain forest to some beautiful falls.  The girls stopped every few minutes to ask for a picture.  It was really incredible.  It amazes me how it is so fertile that trees grow out of trees. 

I am a hug fan of daisy's and I loved that there were wild daisy's growing everywhere! 

Our camp ground for the next two nights was incredible.  We were parked about 100 yards from the shore at Quileute Oceanside Resort.  The amazing thing about the resort is that it is a tiny strip of Indian reservation between two incredible beaches in the national park.  We had full hookups with beauty of practically being in the park. 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was having campfires on the beach.  That was new to me, and I loved it.  I’ll admit, the north west coast is not an annual destination for me.  I prefer warm air and warm water, but it was incredibly beautiful.  For people who prefer to stay out of the water I can see how they would enjoy sitting on the beach listening to the waves crash at a pleasant 60-70 degree temperature.  For me I’d like the air and the water to be about 20 degrees warmer so I can get in.  The cold air and practical ice water didn’t deter the kids.  They got right in! 

When you camp on the coast of a rain forest I guess you should expect rain, and it did rain on our “day off” at the coast.  It was mildly inconvenient because we still hiked to 2^nd beach and enjoyed more of the beauty of the rain forest.  We rested and watched some moves and still enjoyed exploring the beach.  It was the one-day of the trip that I didn’t feel that our schedule was full to the max.  It was good to catch up on laundry and enjoy some down time. I need to remember to plan a little more down time in my future road trip planning.

The rain forest grows big critters!  This slug was bigger than my hand!

On our way out of Olympic National Park we spent some time at Ruby beach.  It was well worth the stop.  We bribed the kids to not get wet so we had fun exploring rather than playing in the water. 

Our final stop in the park was to see this 1000-year-old humongous sitka spruce tree near Lake Quinault.  It was incredible.  The scenery and the magic of the rain forest did not get old for us.

We left Washington and headed into Oregon via this bridge that is just over four miles long.  Crossing the bridge was an event itself, but just after crossing we went to the to the Astoria Column where we enjoyed some incredible views of the Columbia River, the Coast Range, and Young’s Bay.  It was windy, but worth the time!

We didn’t realize we would be so close to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park so it wasn’t in our schedule, but we took an hour or so to stop and see the replica of the fort where the Lewis and Clark team spent the winter before heading east.  We could have spent a lot longer there.  The fort was interesting, but the best part was that they had rangers dressed in time period clothing to answer questions.  The kids tried writing with real quill pens and ink.  It was quite the skill.

Personally I can’t stand the movie Goonies, but Josh is a HUGE fan and showed an edited version to the kids the night before we visited Cannon Beach, where part of the movie was filmed.  Cannon beach was the busiest place we visited the entire trip.  Of course it was 4^th of July weekend, which probably contributed.  It was a beautiful beach, but the fun thing there was that we saw hundreds of Jelly Fish. 

We loved spending the nights of July 3^rd and 4^th at the Shorewood RV Park just outside of Rockaway Beach.  Once again we were a 60 second walk from the beach, and the caretakers of the RV Park were so good to us.  They let the kids choose from dollar store toys to keep every day.  They had beach toys for us to use and a fun picnic aria near the beach. 

Our first evening there the kids couldn’t get out to the water fast enough.  The groundkeeper was out there flying his kite and let our family take over.  Caleb and Josh especially loved flying the kite.  We also got out our bikes and rode them on the beach.  It worked quite well on the wet sand.  Andy loved hitting his brakes and falling off.  It was a beautiful evening.   It felt like and evening that would be straight from the movies. 

Caleb is so good at making friends with people.  He was particularly interested in kites so he struck up a conversation with two men flying kites.  It wasn’t long before he was flying one of their kites and after a while one of the men gave him a kite that needed a little string work.  Josh and Caleb had it up and going in no time. Caleb’s friendliness will likely get him far in life.  He and the rest of the family loved the kite for the rest of the day. 

We spontaneously decided to rent a boat and go crabbing on the morning of the 4^th of July.  We had the boat for two hours and caught nearly a hundred crab.  Unfortunately they had to be male’s and quite big to keep.  We got a lot that were within ¼ inch of being big enough, but only one true keeper.  We did get to eat the keeper.  Cara was excited about it.  She held his bucket, licking her lips most of the morning.  We also saw two beautiful bald eagles and a beach of seals.  It was a really awesome way to spend the holiday morning. 

We spent the afternoon with my lifelong BFF, Misty and her husband Chad Bingham.  They only live about 90 minutes from where we were so they brought their family and joined us in some beach fun.  I regret that I only have these two pictures with their family.  Here our hubbies and kids were building a racetrack in the sand while Misty and I visited.  Everyone was so content.  They also played line tag in the sand, buried people, dug holes and enjoyed a little sunshine. 

The Bingham’s left around dinnertime so we spent the evening as a family.  I LOVED watching fireworks on the beach.  The air was a little too cool for me so we started a fire and roasted marshmallows while we watched fireworks as far as we could see in both directions.  It was really incredible.  People spare no expense in their personal firework shows and we were the benefactors. 

I felt like a trip to the Oregon coast wouldn’t be complete without some tide pooling.  We weren’t in a location to see the best of it, but we got up early enough on our final day to see many starfish at low tide.  It was just one final adventure at the beach. 

On our way out we passed the Tillamook Cheese Factory where they have self guided tours and samples.  We weren’t in a hurry so we stopped and enjoyed watching some of the cheese making process through glass walls.  Once again we benefited from having the RV by getting three quarts of ice cream and eating ice cream three times on the way home rather than getting a scoop each for twice the price. 

The scariest part of our adventure happened on our way home at the Columbia River Gorge.  It was the 5^th of July and the waterfall parking lots were packed.  The roads were at a stand still and we learned the hard way that the bridges are not made big enough for two RV’s to pass.  Luckily the only damage we experienced was our mirror being pulled off.  I stopped and pulled as close to the edge as I could but the guy passing us scrapped along the edge on the other side the whole way.  It was quite the adventure.  We did luckily find a parking spot and went on a little hike to see some falls.  It was good to shake off the jitters.  

That night we treated ourselves to a beautiful Italian dinner on the Columbia River to celebrate our anniversary and our safe travels.  What a wonderful trip!!

We were all ready to see our friends and to get some rest when we returned home on the 6^th.  July 6^th was also our 14^th wedding anniversary.  I will be the first to say how grateful I am for my marriage, for the dedicated husband and father that Josh is and for the way we are living our dreams together.  I feel blessed beyond measure!!