Washington State

Just got back from a 12-day, 3,600 mile trip from San Diego to Washington State. Due to time constraints, we made the 1,300 mile journey to Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula in two days. My wife has family in Redding, so we stopped overnight at their house.



On day two, we left Redding at 4:30 in the morning and got to see the sunrise over Mt. Shasta.

We spent four nights on the Olympic Penninsula, had planned on taking the ferry to Vancouver Island but decided that we liked sleeping in more. The first two days we visited Olympic National Park. This is a huge park that you have to DRIVE a very long way to get anywhere. We should have stayed farther west than Sequim, though the Gilgal Oasis RV Park was a great find. Staying more towards Port Angeles would have saved us 35 - 50 miles a day in driving.

Day three wasn't too bad, we drove about 75 miles.



First stop was Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, the clouds were hanging out, so we could not see Vancouver Island or the Cascades, but it was still a glorious day. We did a lot of hiking on the ridge and wandering the visitor center.



We then went to Marymere Falls, a nice quite walk through the forest to a great view point.

Day four was quite a drive, 250 miles.



Drove to the furthest destination first, the beaches in Kalaloch, I was amazed at the amount of driftwood. After that we went to see the big cedar, an enormous tree just off the 101 down a dirt track and then to Ruby Beach. This was a stony beach compared to the sands in Kalaloch.



Final stop for the day was the Hoh Rainforest. It's their "dry" season, so the mosses were more golden than the lush green you see in the brochures.

Day five we only drove 200 miles and went to Cape Flattery on the Makah Indian reservation, the most northwest piece of land in the lower 48. We stopped first at the Makah Museum / Cultural and Research Center. There they display artifacts from a village that was buried by a mudslide 500 years ago. It's a great little museum and you got to see the ingenuity and technology used by these people, quite impressive.



The cape was beautiful, weather was perfect and we got excellent Canadian cell phone reception. Good thing we didn't need to use our phones and had set the data to NOT roam, that could have been a fortune! This photo is of Tatoosh island just off the cape.

Day six was a short 110 mile drive to the KOA in Kent so we could visit Seattle. We did not like this place and would not recommend staying here, the spaces were really tight and the showers left a lot to be desired.



After setting up camp, we took the short 17 mile drive into Seattle and visited Pike Place Market. My wife has always wanted to see the place. She was a bit disappointed, she thought there would be a ton of seafood and fresh produce there. Except for the salmon, everything was imported, even the produce was from California. But, we can say that we've been there.



Day seven was supposed to be a full day exploring Seattle, hitting a few museums, taking a tour and having lunch at the Space Needle. We ended up only having lunch at the Space Needle, it was good food and an excellent view of the city as the restaurant slowly rotated. After that, we hit the wall and decided to go back to camp, take a nap and relax.

Day eight saw us moving camp again, headed 100 miles south to Castle Rock and the Toutle River RV Resort. It's a beautiful park on I-5. There was some freeway noise, but it was drowned out by the rail traffic on the other side and it's a busy line!



We drove about 50 miles to Mt. St. Helens. It's amazing to see that the place still looks sterile after 31-years.



Day nine we headed to Mt Rainier National Park and hiking in the snow in late August.

Day 10 was only a nine-hour drive back to Redding

Day 11 was spent visiting family, we don't get to see them often enough.

Day 12 was a 13-1/2 hour marathon back home

Wow!

We hope to do WA, OR and northern CA next year.

Thanks for the report

Excellent trip report Mark! Beautiful pics.

Mt. St. Helens still looks a little scary after all these years. I think Mount Rainier is a very underated national park.

We were there in '99 and it still ranks as my #1 vacation.

Nice Trip, great report! We're hoping to get our rig to the "west side" next year a couple times. We visited Mt St Helens a couple weeks back (see campground reviews post) and was very impressed. There is a lot to see up here, but we're hoping to get into northern Cali and the Oregon Coast someday soon too!

Glad to see Rainer was out for you when you were at the needle! We drove the 410 senic byway this summer between Yakima and Seattle, man was it nice Rainer is impressive! As for Pike Place, it is what it is. It's fun but you're right, it's all shipped in (sans salmon and dungeness crab).

Again, very nice, thanks for sharing!!!

Nice trip and beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

That is what a call a first rate report. Pics were awesome and commentary was excellent. You really packed a lot of adventure into one trip. Seems well planned and executed.

Sounds like a great trip. Awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing
Jim

Thanks for the trip report and great photos. Sounds like you had a great trip.

Tater

Now those are some pic's that truly make you wish you were there.
Great Shots.....

Outstanding!!

I LOVE your pictures!! Bummer on the fish market though!!

TC

What an odyssey...Truly remarkable photography...

You look like you could be an expert behind the camera...

Seein Mt St Hellens is on my to do list some day...I still have a small vile of ash from the 84 eruption...a geologist friend in washington sent it to me cause he new how much interest I had in geology...I was only 14 then...wow a lot has changed!

Very nice trip/photo log

I am liking these positive reviews of St. Helens as I am going there tomorrow for the weekend. Looking forward to it even more now.