Vacation to Olympic National Park
Sunday, August 30
We had a slow start to our vacation and didn’t leave until around lunch time. We even stopped by Powells to pick up some books for our trip, including a guide to the Olympic National Park. We packed up the truck and off we went. During the drive, Mike was a little antsy. On a whim, we visited Lake Quinalt, where we decided to stop for the night. Lake Quinalt is just south of the park and located in a rainforest. The lake was really lovely and the mosquitoes weren’t too terrible. We made hamburgers, read our books, took photos and, generally, relaxed…until it was time to start a fire. Mike took on the firestarter role and had quite the struggle with the wood that we bought from a local general store. The wood would just not light, and it was dry wood too. Once we finally got it lit, the wood seemed to just smolder and wouldn’t hold a large flame.
Monday, August 31
We slept poorly that night, as was expected since it was the first night sleeping in the truck. Also, the crows woke us up the next morning. We hit the road early, after Mike’s excellent breakfast burrito and some coffee.
The plan was to travel up the west side of the park and then across the top and see what happened then. Our first stop was the numbered beaches. We missed the pull-out for Beach 1, but we stopped at Beach 2. It looked like a beach; nothing too exciting except that we were completely alone there. We then stopped at Beach 4. There were more people with us and the beach had black sand and was rocky. Otherwise, it looked like a beach. Ruby Beach wasn’t much different except that the sand was lighter. There was supposed to be pink-colored sand and I was initially disappointed not to see any, though, we eventually found it. It was also a little underwhelming. As we walked along the beach, there wasn’t really anything to make Mike want to take out his camera. On the way out of the beach, Mike did find a rock that someone had written on with charcoal that said “Take Picture” and had an arrow. On a clear day, it would have made a great picture. He couldn’t pass on the opportunity to take a humorous photo of the rock with me in the background.
We hit some nasty road construction on our way into the park and were stopped for a good 30 minutes or so. We decided the Ho Rainforest campground would be our stopping point for the night. To reach the campground, we drove just under 20 miles into the park. Once there, we learned there were absolutely no services, except for a ranger station and visitor’s center. That was fine except that the camping fee was only $12 and all we had was a $20 bill. That would have been a fat tip and left us nothing to buy firewood. The ranger at the visitor’s center was kind enough to make change for us, so we could afford to camp and have a fire. The campground was really beautiful. The first spot we wanted was already taken, but that ended up being lucky for us, because the second spot was absolutely perfect. It faced the river and was private.
Our first action: make lunch because we were starving! Hotdogs, chips and beer were on the menu. We rested for a bit and hiked for a couple miles around the visitor center’s nature walk. We saw a chipmunk taking a bath in the ground-up bark of a fallen tree. It was really cute to see him scooting on his belly and side in the bark. Back to camp for more relaxation. We sat in our chairs in the shade, drank beer and ate cookies. Mike took some photos. Then, Mike saw an elk on the other side of the shallow river. We watched the elk eat, walk to the river for a drink, and then slowly cross the river. He was heading into our campgrounds. He had 5 points on his rack. Mike was getting some good pictures of the elk eating foliage in the campground, as Mike tried avoid the campers and RVs in the background. Then, we saw another elk across the river. Sure enough, he also came to the campground to join his friend. Both 5-point elk started sparring. It was amazing. The sound of their antlers hitting each other was phenomenal. A ranger showed up and told us that the elk were practicing for the rutting season, which would happen in a couple weeks, and were checking out the competition while sparring. Thinking of our moose encounter at Glacier, Mike and I kept our distance from the elk (though Mike’s comfort zone included a short distance than mine). The only time I was worried was when a yappy little dog started barking by Mike. I asked Mike to stay away from the dog because if the dog upset the elk, I didn’t want Mike to be in the elk’s way.
We had stew in a bread bowl for dinner. We ate too much bread and had bellyaches that night. Mike was feeling overly-dirty and decided to take a bath in the river. The river was so shallow that his bath was more like a wet push up. We then hung out by the fire until it was dark and time to sleep.
Tuesday, September 1
After a quick breakfast of cereal and a banana, we left early. We first stopped at Forks, WA, which is the site for the series Twilight. I thought about vampires on the entire way up to Forks. The town itself was a little dumpy. We bought necessary supplies and left. We continued to Sol Duc, which is a lodge in the park with a hot springs pool and a campground nearby. We were undecided when we initially arrived whether we would stay in the lodge or the campground. A quick drive through the campground convinced us to stay there because the campgrounds were nice. These campgrounds were in the heart of the woods. As Mike later observed, we camped by a lake, by a river and in the woods.
We decided to do a short hike. Luckily, knowing what usually happens when we just go on a short hike, we brought the water backpack and snacks. Our short hike turned into a grueling 8 miler up a hill to Deer Lake. The hike to the Sol Duc water falls, which was our original destination, was just too easy. The rest of the hike was not easy. The lake was a pretty alpine lake. When the wind began to blow, I got cold because we had sweat profusely on our way up to the lake. I did enjoy the wild huckleberries on the trail near the lake. I ate a handful of them.
When we returned, we paid $3 each plus tax for a shower at the lodge. And it wasn’t a private shower either – it was more like a lockerroom. But, feeling clean for the first time since Sunday was definitely worth it. That night, we took it easy around another campfire. We didn’t buy wood because the price of wood at the lodge was way too expensive, but a previous camper had kindly left us a large piece of wood, which was more than sufficient.
Wednesday, September 2
Other than being woke up by an owl (? or was it something else), we slept well. We decided on a quick breakfast and then to continue with our travels. We tried to find a trail that I was going to run on by Lake Crescent, but we ended up the middle of the woods. Ultimately, we learned that the trail started on the other side of the lake.
After that false start, we made our way into Port Townsend. We took a quick look at Fort Walden for camping and only saw the barren camping spots by the ocean. The view was great but we weren’t sold because it was clearly going to be cold and windy to camp there. We went into town and found a brew pub. We were starving but the pub didn’t open for another 30 minutes. We waited and waited and waited. The pub finally opened 15 minutes late.
After a greasy meal and a cold beer, we went back to Fort Walden to look around. We started in the visitor’s center, which was located in the fort’s old jail, and watched a video history of the fort. Then, we walked up the hill to see the old artillary bunkers. They were cool. It was great that the fort was turned into a state park and allowed the public to explore the bunkers. After walking and taking photos for quite a while, we were at a quandary what to do next. Stay and camp or move on? We decided to move on and, at the last minute, to go to Whidney Island. We, of course, had no reservations for the ferry but took a chance anyway. Unfortunately, we were two vehicles shy of making the ferry. Well, we certainly weren’t going to just sit there and wait for another ferry so we decided to drive south and see what happened.
Mike found a resort at Port Ludlow on his phone and we decided to check it out. It was a sailing resort but it looked nice and they had a room available. Their definition of a queen size bed left a little to be desired but there was a nice Jacuzzi and, more importantly, a hot shower. The shower felt wonderful. We then went to a pizza place to get some food. They didn’t have beer, despite the fact that they had beer signs posted and it was on their menu. The lady was rude, and they gave us the wrong pizza. So, we went the neighboring store for beer and snacks. Finally, we were in for the night. At the store, Mike had picked out a local beer. When we took the first sip, we had quite a surprise – it was blueberry beer. Blueberry beer doesn’t go well with meat pizza and we later found out the beer was from New York. But, we sat on our balcony, drinking beer, enjoying the view and each others’ company. It was great.
Thursday, September 3
I really needed to go for a run and found a 4.5 mile hiking loop nearby. I figured that since we were on the coast, it would be fairly flat and a good course for me. Mike agreed to go with me and hike the loop. The plan was that when I finished the loop, I would turn around and run back to Mike and then we’d finish hiking it together. Wow – were there a lot of hills on the loop. When I was at the end of the loop, I had no idea where the truck was. The loop ended about ¼ mile up the road from the truck and I was lost. After about 5 minutes, I figured out where the truck was, saw that Mike was not in the truck, and figured that we were continuing with our plan. Since I was so late, I really boogied on the trail back to Mike. “Hmmm…I should have seen him by now. ” “Now, I really should have seen him. He’s probably taking photos. I hope he didn’t get lost.” I ran the entire way back only to find that the truck was gone. Mike had gotten eaten alive by the mosquitoes and decided to return to the truck instead of continuing the loop. When I was later than he expected, he drove the truck up to the trail exit. Our timing was perfect so that we just missed each other.
After that experience, we started heading towards home. On another whim we decided to take a bridge over to Tacoma. We then found out it was a new bridge and had a toll. The toll was $4, which was a lot higher than we thought was worth the drive over the water.
We made it home on Thursday night and enjoyed the long weekend of just relaxing and preparing for the next week.
