Exploring Washington's Volcanic Beaches, Rain Forest, National Parks, Waterfalls, and Vampires

Castle Rock, La Push and Port Angeles, WA (51 degrees, rain, sun, fog...repeat)

"In the rain forest,

thoughts intuitively yield

to a slower and grander pace"

Tim McNulty

The past ten days have been spent exploring some of Washington's coastline and beautiful National and State Parks. We have been in some of the wettest parts of the nation (over 200 inches of rain/year) and snowiest (over 800 inches/year) and taken some lovely hikes along the rough coastlines and into pristine forests. 

We started in Castle Rock KOA campground which is near Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier National Park. After checking the weather for our stay there was only one blue sky day. Mount Rainier is rarely seen due to it's elevation being over 14,000 feet and often extreme weather conditions. It's also receives around 800 inches of snow!!!  In early spring only one road was partially open. It was a spectacular day and we saw clear views of the mountain peak.

Wow!  That's a lot of snow

Mount Rainier

Glaciers have carved out this area

The next day we did attempt to see Mount St. Helens, however, fog and rain made visibility poor and the National Park Visitor Center was not open.  We did stop at the State Park Visitor Center and saw some interesting displays and a movie about the eruption. You may have heard the  story about Harry Truman who owned a lodge at Slide Lake. He refused to evacuate and the eruption blew the lake out and up the mountain returning with tons of debris. He was buried probably below the lake he loved so much. An additional 56 people died that day. We will have to go back another time when the weather is more cooperative.

Our next stop was La Push and our campground (Quileute Oceanside) was delightful. It's on an Indian reservation and many of the sites have great views of the ocean and haystack. We even were able to have a fire on the beach. It's a gem.

We look sort of homeless according to a friend of mine in this photo below but we had a blast despite the chilly temperatures.  

Belle's truck

The closest town, Forks, gained lots of notoriety after being chosen by the author of the Twilight series. We stopped at the Visitor Center and she gave us a map to all the filming locations. Are you a fan of the series? It does seem like a place where a vampire and werewolf could hide out. But, alas we didn't see any.

One sunny day we took a beautiful hike along the very rugged coastline of Rialto Beach. The ocean was very active and fun to watch. We hiked out to a hole in the rock but couldn't go in due to the high tide. This is one of my all time favorite  hikes.  The forest comes right down to the beach. Eventually some of the trees fall in and huge amounts of driftwood cling along the high tide mark. 

The hole in the rock is in the background

Another great hike was out to Cape Flattery recommended to us by our friend Diana. You hike through a beautiful forest and then suddenly step out to views of an incredible coastline and lighthouse. We saw seals and an otter plus lots of shorebirds. This is an Audubon trail

Cape Flattery LIghthouse

Otter at play

Our last stop was in Port Angeles and we stayed at a pretty county park called Salt Creek. Our friend Georgann recommended it. We snagged a site with a view of Strait of Juan De Fuca  Now we are on the drier side of the Olympic peninsula (only 40 inches of rain). There are tide pools at the beach too.

One clear morning we raced up to see the Olympic Range at the National Park at Hurricane Ridge. This can also be a rare event. There was a lot of snow here as well but it was so pretty.

Olympic Mountain Range

As you might have noticed Olympic National Park is very diverse. There are rain forests, beautiful coast lines and spectacular mountain ranges. It's a large park and we really just saw a portion of it. I'd rate it as one of my favorite National Parks to date. We would love to return to and explore further. 

Near the park is Dungeness National Fish and Wildlife Refuge which has the largest natural spit extending out into the ocean. We hiked through a lush forest out to the beach and walked a great distance down the spit. There is a lighthouse at 5.5 miles out but the tide and fog were rolling in and we decided not to go out that far. It was a nice hike especially when the fog horn began to sound off.

The forest was lush and very pretty

This narrow spit extended and curved out into the ocean for 5.5 miles

Our last day at the park was spent going out to where the ranger thought we might see Steelhead jumping up the river to spawn. He was right. Our pictures are not great but it was a thrill to see them and they were huge.

Steelhead jumping...can you see him/her?

There is a nice hot spring in this area and a sweet hike out to the prettiest waterfall.  This time of year was the perfect time to see it. 

Marymere Falls

Tomorrow we will be taking a ferry from Port Angeles Washington to Vancouver Canada and starting our exciting adventure to Western Canada and Alaska. Our travels up the California, Oregon and Washington coast has been wonderful and better than we ever imagined. We so enjoyed meeting up with some of our friends.  The rugged coastline delighted us and the lush green forests and snow topped mountains were a fairyland of wonder. We feel very blessed and although this lifestyle may not be for everyone it suits us so well. Check back soon to read all about our trek to Alaska. Thanks for stopping by.

A Visit To The End Of The Journey For Lewis & Clark - Plus Our Motorhome Got New Shoes

Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon (54 degrees, chilly)

"Ocian in View!  O! the joy."

Captain William Clark, 1805

These are the words written in the journal by Captain Clark after traveling over 4000 miles across the continent with Captain Lewis and their party. This is what they saw.

We traveled from our campground over the beautiful Astoria Bridge to Cape Disappointment State Park located near Ilwaco Washington to see this rugged place. This was where Lewis and Clark finally saw the Pacific Ocean. They hacked through this dense area to  see their first glimpse. 

We spent most of the morning going through the museum located here and taking a hike out to the lighthouse. This is a must stop for anyone interested in these explorers.  The museum is top notch and as you descend down the ramp you read about their journey from beginning to end. The displays are excellent and we really had a new appreciation for all that they had accomplished.

Lewis and Clark found this area very inhospitable and spent ten miserable days here. They later journeyed across the Columbia River to Oregon and traveled down what is now the Lewis and Clark River to build a fort for the winter. (Fort Clatsop -more about this later)

A lighthouse can be accessed by taking pretty hike through this lush area. This coast line is extremely dangerous and there have been many shipwrecks here.  The Columbia River exits into the Pacific Ocean and dumps lots of silt which make the passage through this area very tricky.  All ships need an escort. We saw earlier at the Maritime museum exactly how these river pilots board the ships. Let's just say that is a very risky business.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Trail out to lighhouse

Where the Columbia and Pacific Ocean meet

Afterwards we stopped at a Cranberry Research Foundation to learn everything about cranberries. It was very interesting and I'd love to return and see how they are harvested in the fall. 

Cranberry test plots

Lewis and Clark River

The next day we went to see where Lewis and Clark spent the winter at Fort Clatsop. It's a National Park and they have recreated what the fort looked like. It was much smaller than I imagined to have house so many people. There are some nice trails here too. From here the expedition turned back and returned to St. Louis in the spring. 

Fort Clatsop

We enjoyed our time in this area very much and it's a very beautiful area. Our next stop was Vancouver Washington for a few days and we stayed at the Elks Lodge. Most of our time was spent shopping and getting ready for Alaska.  

Bear's new shoe

One important task was replacing our tires on the motorhome. We have learned through tire safety classes to replace them every five years, regardless of wear or mileage. FMCA (Family Motorcoach Association) has a great program for their members with Michelin Tire. We used this program before in Delaware. The cost of the tire is the same no matter what state you buy them in. However,  one way you can save a little more is paying attention to sales taxes. For example, you might want to avoid California.  Oregon and Delaware do not have any sales tax.  Tires also have birth dates.  Who knew?  There is a code on each tire which will tell you when it was manufactured. We tried to get the newest ones available because the five year clock starts ticking by the manufacture date, not the date you put them on your motorhome. 

FMCA has a link on how to set up your account and find a dealer. We chose Elite Onsite in Portland. I can't necessarily recommend them because they seemed disorganized and we had quite a hassle getting tires with good "birth dates". But eventually it all worked out. We saved $77/tire by going through this program. It's still a big expense ($3058 for the six tires) but we found the price to be almost identical to five years ago. 

Thanks for stopping by. Our next post will be about a visit to the rain forest in Washington State, coastal beach hikes, two National Parks, and even a vampire.  Check back soon.