Exploring Olympic National Park

Before summer started, we decided we'd like to explore Olympic National Park during our holidays. When we looked into campsites, they were almost completely booked, but we found a spot at a KOA in Port Angeles and decided to take the last four days available in August.

As we prepared for our trip, we got lots of advice from others who had been there--including a tip about taking a ferry instead of driving through Seattle.

So, on Tuesday, we headed out for Coupeville, Washington. The day could not have been more beautiful. Our first stop was at Deception Pass, where we walked by the ocean and took a few pictures.

We arrived a little early at the ferry and were able to leave almost an hour before our reserved time.

It was sunny and windy, and the ride across was only about half an hour.

Our cabin in Port Angeles was small but very comfortable with a porch swing, enough beds for everyone, a bathroom/shower, a TV, and a pool.

We didn't have much time left in the day but decided to visit the nearby Olympic Game Farm, where people drive through and feed the animals. We saw lots of yaks, elk, llamas, buffalo, bears, and deer.

They got a little aggressive at times, but the kids had fun feeding them bread.

That night we watched The Muppets and made our plans for Wednesday.

Wednesday morning we set out for the Hoh Rain Forest. On the way, we made a fun stop in Forks, where the Twilight books are set. The information center was hilarious, with life-size cut-outs of the Twilight characters. 

The tour guides talked about the people and events from the books as if they were real and even got out some props for Jason to pose as Carlisle Cullen :)

Even though we don't consider ourselves "fans" (except Janae), we got kind of excited about seeing Edward Cullen's house and the "treaty line" between the vampires and werewolves, and we stopped back in Forks on the way back to Port Angeles later that evening ... just before dark.

The rain forest, though, was amazing and definitely worth the 2-hour drive out that way. It was the greenest place I have ever seen, and I have seen some pretty green places!

We did two mile-long hikes: the hall of mosses

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and the spruce nature trail.

The kids were climbing in these huge overturned roots, 

and when we looked at the back of them we saw the enormous tree they had supported, with several new trees growing up from it.

The water was so clear we could see the bottom of the river.

From the rain forest we went to Ruby Beach, a long stretch of ocean with lots of drift wood, rock formations, and tide pools to explore.

We found star fish and anemones and played in the waves for a couple of hours.

On Thursday we planned to see Hurricane Ridge. From here we had a spectacular 360-degree view of the Olympic mountain range.

We hiked several of the trails around the area and were amazed by the views.

Most of us agreed that this was the highlight of our trip, although some of us liked Ruby Beach the best.

After Hurricane Ridge we drove around Lake Crescent and stopped at Sol Duc Lake to see the fish jumping. Eric decided to swim in his clothes.

On Friday we said goodbye to our campsite and started back to the ferry.

 We stopped at the Dungeness nature reserve

then got some ice cream and looked in a couple of bookstores in Port Townsend while we waited for our sailing time.

We all agreed that we could have spent at least another week exploring Olympic National Park, and we hope to go back there someday.