Hurricane Ridge is another popular destination within Olympic National Park and for a good reason. I’ve always loved snowy mountains so we made sure to hit this attraction early in the season to get the best views. Hurricane Ridge is just 18 miles south of Port Angeles, Washington and a great day trip. Named for …
One of the most popular things to do in Olympic National Park is hike to Sol Duc Falls. We picked a morning mid week before the summer crowds to check this out. It’s worth it. The name Sol Duc comes from a Native American word meaning “sparkling water” or “magic waters”. The latter is a more …
Port Angeles, Washington is an ideal base for a lot of our summer adventures. About an hour drive northeast and we arrived in Port Townsend for a day trip. Port Townsend Port Townsend has a long saga of soaring dreams, bitter disappointments, near death, and gradual rebirth. Located on the northeast corner of the Olympic …
While waiting for the snow to melt and the higher elevations to warm up, we’re spending time hiking and riding lower trails. This time we hiked part of Little River in Port Angeles. This trail actually goes all the way up to Hurricane Hill Trail but we didn’t go that far. Even if you don’t …
Salt Creek Recreation Area began life as a harbor defense military base named Camp Hayden, built between 1942 and 1945. Remnants of Camp Hayden remain throughout the park and we passed several. Camp Hayden consists of two large concrete bunkers, and several smaller structures. Our Striped Peak loop had a couple out and back legs and …
The Strait of Juan de Fuca is huge at 96 miles long. Dungeness Spit is a sand spit jutting out approximately 5 miles from the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula into the strait. It is the longest natural sand spit in the United States and is growing in length by about 15 feet per year. The spit grows …
Just inside the Hurricane Ridge entrance booth to Olympic National Park we did a short hike on a cool spring day. The Heart O’the Hills Trail starts inside the campground and goes out and back. Our hike was pretty near 5 miles but we did a bit of extra credit to get to Lake Creek. …
Marymere Falls hike is an easy, less than 2 mile hike by Lake Crescent in Washington. We were coming from Forks and stopped here to do a quick hike and stretch. It was a cool, foggy day which is perfect for forest hikes. First we passed by the lake before taking the trail through the …
Our last beach day in the Forks area turned out to be a glorious sunny day. We drove to La Push and hiked Second Beach. From the parking lot to the beach is only .8 miles but then you can walk pretty far to the south until the waves crash up against the rocky cliff …
Rialto Beach is another pretty popular beach hike on the Olympic Peninsula by Forks because at low tide you get to hike through a hole or passageway in the rock to get to tidepools on the other side. The weather for a few days wasn’t looking great with rain in the forecast but our raincoats …