Olympic Peninsula & National Park, WA

Day #38 (September 7, 2022): Today was a much needed “rest” day. Emily spent the day unpacking suitcases and restocking the refrigerator/freezer (which had been emptied prior to parking the RV without electricity for the week) and pantry, while Chris caught up on work and the girls played outside. After resting all day in the truck yesterday, Bethany was feeling completely fine and was ready to play. Neil, on the other hand, slept all night and day and night. COVID had hit him hard.

Day #39 (September 8, 2022): After school work, the girls continued to play volleyball and basketball outside, while Chris continued to catch up on work, Emily processed the previous month’s mail that Chris’ parents had graciously collected and mailed to us and scheduled appointments for our upcoming visit to Nashville, and Neil continued to sleep all day and night.

Day #40 (September 9, 2022): Well, after 3 nights and 2.5 days of resting and not venturing out, Chris, Emily, Joanna, and Bethany drove to the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park to admire Mount Olympus and its surrounding mountain cohorts that are collectively known as the Olympic Mountain Range. The Olympic Mountains are spectacular to behold if you can catch them on a clear day, which we were thankful to do! The entire mountain range is like an organized linear basket of books with their peaks neatly staggered so that they are all equally, neatly on display. It’s hard to pick a favorite amongst the group because they are all so similar except for the white glacier cap of the slightly taller, Mount Olympus. Gorgeous! We wore our masks and social distanced while inside the visitor centers since we were all still symptom-free thankfully. We picked up a “Fourth Grader Pass” for Joanna from the visitor center.

(Side note: every fourth grader and their immediate family can enter all national parks for free from September through August as part of the Every Kid Outdoor program. Amazing!!) We had to wait until after September 1 to get the pass for this current school year. Now, Joanna is our golden ticket to get into all the national parks for free! Thank you, Joanna!! When we enter each park, Joanna raises her hand and waves when the park ranger asks to verify whether our 4th grader is in the car with us. Joanna, you rock!!

Unfortunately, Neil…and now Lily…stayed behind at the RV in bed. After our brief visit to wet our taste for Olympic’s vastness and beauty, we headed back to the RV to virtually attend a wedding ceremony of one of our dear friends. We were sorry to miss it in person, but given our circumstances, we were thankful for modern technology to enable us to watch it live and to see and talk to the bride before and after the ceremony.

Afterward, Joanna, Bethany, and Emily headed up the road to Salt Creek Recreation Area, a nearby state park with tidal pools filled with all sorts of sea life and plants including sea anemones, clams, and barnacles. We used the awesome app Seek to help us identify the plants and animals that we saw. The girls loved exploring the tidal pools and rock hopping through the water along the shore until sunset.

We loved the portion of shoreline a little further down from where we started where all the rocks looked like various sized birds’ eggs so perfectly smooth and speckled! Together, we witnessed a beautiful, beautiful sunset and snapped selfies and videos as we watched the sun sink below the water horizon of the Strait of Juan de Fuca! It was a special moment. After dark, on the drive home, we saw an awesome, HUGE red-orange moon. Wow! What a glorious day!

Day #41 (September 10, 2022): After about 120 hours of near solid sleep, it was time for Neil to emerge from bed. Bless him! He had been hit pretty hard with his first case of COVID. Lily, on the other hand, still needed more rest, so she stayed behind in bed, while the rest of us, including Neil, took a scenic drive on Hwy 112 along the northern edge of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. We drove to Neah Bay and hiked the Cape Flattery trail through the beautiful rainforest to the most northwestern tip of the contiguous 48 states!

That was pretty cool! And there were so many cool trees of various shapes and hollows along the trail for an added bonus! We drove back along Hwy 112 hoping to catch a glimpse of any signs of whales or seals, but we didn’t.

Neil was exhausted after our brief hike, but the fresh air was good for him. We drove him back to the RV to rest and to check on Lily. Joanna and Bethany were eager to go back to the tidal pools at Salt Creek Recreation Area before sunset. This time, with the Seek app’s help, we identified sea urchins, kelp, chiton, mussels, sea sacs (those are really fun!), Turkish washcloth (how ‘bout that for a name), black leather chiton, and a yellow-headed blackbird (not in the tidal pools, but at the truck). We hoped to spot some more black-tailed deer grazing on the lawn near the parking lot like the previous night, but no sight of them tonight.

Day #42 (September 11, 2022): Well, this is our last day in the gorgeous Olympic Peninsula and poor Lily hasn’t even left the RV park! We wanted to make the most of our last day here. This part of the Evergreen State is a place where it would have been ideal to have 2-3 weeks to do all the different ferries, forts, towns, tours, hikes, bike trails, nature, history, and exploring that this area has to offer! Bucket List!

We started the day with a short, but oh-so-pretty trail to Madison Falls. It was picturesque! I mean the whole place was like out of a picture book suitable for Tinker Bell and all her fairy friends to live! The kids loved playing in the amazing trees and exploring around the falls and creek. There was a huge stump in which they could all fit inside. It was massive!

Another tree was so huge and its limbs drooped and touched the ground in such a way that it created a perfect fort to play under its shade and protection. Afterward, we played along the Elwha River’s shore in a dry portion of its riverbed. Next, we drove into Olympic National Park and hiked a 1.5-mile trail through the rainforest to Marymere Falls. The ferns and moss-covered super-tall trees were a feast for the eyes along the entire hike. It was spectacular! By the end of the hike, the kids were tired of hearing Emily saying every little bit, “Look at those ferns!” “Look at that moss!” “What a cool tree!” “Oh! Those ferns!” LOL! Pictures just don’t do it justice. It must be trees and forests like these in Olympic National Park that so perfectly inspire illustrators when drawing living forests full of faces, arms, hair, and such. How cool to see them with your own eyes! After the hike, we admired all the multiple shades of blue of the crystal-clear water of Crescent Lake. Amazing!

After a morning full of hikes and exploring, we had definitely worked up an appetite, so we drove back up the road to the infamous Granny’s Café for hamburgers, fish & chips, a “Seven Lakes Grilled Chicken Burger” with blackberry BBQ sauce (de-li-cious!!), blackberry pie (so good!!), and the best soft-serve ice cream cones ever!

Creamiest, most delicious soft-serve ice cream is evidently what put this place on the map! They even had a small petting zoo with a donkey, emus, goats, rabbits, and chickens behind the restaurant. Granny’s only has outdoor seating, which was perfect for us since we were social distancing and staying outdoors all day. We got a kick at the free-range chickens fighting over any food that fell from the picnic tables. When the bottom of Neil’s ice cream cone accidently fell onto the ground, it was instantly swept up by a chicken and soon the center of a “chicken fight” as the chickens took turns pecking a quick bite from the cone before having it stolen by another chicken. Hilarious! What a great stop!

Next, we drove back into Olympic National Park to Salmon Cascades to watch salmon jumping the cascades upstream the Sol Duc River to spawn in their birthplace before dying (and feeding the local wildlife), and thus continuing the life cycle of the Coho salmon.

It’s hard to describe in words what you witness at this amazing spectacle of God’s brilliant creation. Imagine…hopping up (remember, without feet or legs) all the way to the top of a very crowded downward-moving escalator where each way-taller-than-you stair feels really more like a cliff than a casual step. So, hopping isn’t the best word choice here, you are more like leaping these watery cliffs…aka cascades. Really?!? Yes! It was so, so cool! Who knew salmon could jump so high?! How exhausting! What a way to spend your final days! Talk about persistence and determination!

Day #43 (September 12, 2022): Well, three days certainly wasn’t enough to do everything we wanted to do, but we were so thankful we were able to leave the RV park for some fresh air and outdoor explorations before needing to move on to our next destination/reservation. This place of stunningly beautiful rainforest in the mountains on the coast should definitely be on our bucket list of places to come back to for an extended visit. Wow! I (Emily) can see why my great-grandmother and several of her siblings moved to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula later in life. It’s like an epicenter of natural beauty! Thank you, Evergreen State, for sharing your peaceful and serene beauty with our family!

It is now time to head toward our next destination: Crater Lake National Park! We drove south, down through the Olympic peninsula, crossing the Columbia River into Oregon, stopping just minutes before entering the vast Mt Hood National Forest, and parking at Mt Hood Village RV Park. We were delighted to discover that they had an activity center that had an indoor swimming pool and hot tub, and a game room with ping-pong, foosball, pool, and an Atari-style game. We ate dinner that night at El Burro Loco, which was a very good Americanized-Mexican food with very generous portions. Afterward, we all went for a family swim in the indoor swimming pool and hot tub.

Day #44 (September 13, 2022): Turns out, Mt Hood Village RV Park is part of the Thousand Trails network. This was our first time to stay at one of these parks. We enjoyed the amenities so much that we decided to stay an extra day to rest before continuing our journey to Crater Lake National Park, where we would experience our first stop of actual “camping” with no hookups of any kind. Without electricity, we would have to take turns between the RV batteries and a generator to keep the refrigerator-freezer from spoiling and internet would be very limited to the few hours of generator use.

We were all thankful to have a day off driving to chill while Chris caught up on some work. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the activity center after finishing their schoolwork. That afternoon, Neil, Lily, Bethany, and Emily went on a bike ride from the campground along the Salmon River and through the lush, green rainforest of the connecting Wildwood Recreational Area. Along the Cascade Streamwatch Trail, they were able to look through an underwater window and see 3-inch baby Coho salmon in the stream. So cool!