Mike & Kris - Enjoying The Ride

Mike and I were born and raised on the West Coast but this is our first visit to Olympic National Park.  We know we should have come sooner and we know we will definitely be back again.  It’s just that great a place. We are only half way through our stay here and we keep finding ourselves making plans for our next trip back here.

We started our trip at Lake Quinault – camping right next to the lake was an added bonus.

At the end of the campground we found the World’s Largest Sitka Spruce tree and we hadn’t even driven anywhere yet.  Next we started on the loop road from one side of the lake to the other and got our first real introduction to a temperate rain forest.  The waterfall pictured above was our first stop.  Need I say more–we were hooked.

After the loop around the lake, we decided to head west and get a look at the beautiful Pacific Ocean.  We couldn’t have planned it any better as we were greeted with a perfectly cloudless afternoon at the Kalaloch beaches.

We visited Beach 1, Beach 3, Beach 4, and Ruby Beach.

The waves, the trees right up to the beach, the blue sky, the rocks, and weathered logs–amazing.  And it was still only our first day.

Our next stop was to the Quileute Reservation in LaPush, Washington.

The RV park was on the beach!  We loved every minute of our stay, especially listening to the nonstop pounding waves.  You know you’ve found a great place when we don’t even want to check anything out after arriving.  It’s just:  “Let’s get our chairs and some wine and head over to the sand.”  Our kind of vacation.  However, by this time we had been several days without any internet, which is not such a bad thing, but we were in need of some library books and wanted to do a quick check in to let everyone know where we were.  Of course, isolation has a price, it took us over an hour to get to Forks (the nearest town), download some new books, check in, and back to our beach.

We ventured out again the next day as it was time to see the Hoh Rainforest.  It rained the entire drive there and we were unsure about any hiking.  But we had minimal rain gear (mostly just umbrellas!) and out we went.  We walked the loop called the Hall of Mosses–so cool and wet too!!

Mike took some amazing shots and it was worth every drop of rain that fell.

 

We are getting ready to move our RV to Port Angeles for the last few days of our Olympic National Park trip but before we move on I wanted to mention a couple of other celebrations we were able to attend.

Part of what makes this summer in Washington so great is the chance to visit and celebrate with family and friends.  We spent the 4th of July at our home “resort” (my sister Jill and her husband Steve’s house in Enumclaw) with over fifty family members-what fun.

They also brought cards, a cake, and presents to help me celebrate my birthday. A nice surprise!

Then we traveled to beautiful Frances, Washington to attend their summer Schwingfest (Swiss style wresting and so much more).

Mike and I hadn’t been in over 30 years so we had some serious catching up to do.

What an awesome weekend filled with great friends, awesome music, and, of course, a little schnapps.