Olympic National Park

I LOVE NATIONAL PARKS, and we have been wanting to spend time in the Olympics for quite some time. I spent some time here growing up with our young women group due to an amazing couple that loved camping and would take us anytime we wanted to go. So I have wanted to take the kids to some of the places I remembered. Ryan hadn't seen a lot of it so it was great for him to explore uncharted territory. We didn't have any time for camping this summer and we decided to go for it for Ryans birthday weekend. I found out that September is actually one of the best times to go to the Olympics, they typically get less rain during this month, and much of the snow has melted off. Now it is a rainforest so we did get rain, but it was in the middle of the night on our last night, so we didn't care if our gear got wet. It was nice during the day which is what we cared about. We counted it up and figured the kids hiked around 12 miles, and really they could have done more, it was mom and dad carrying Mia that tuckered out.

We did the trip counterclockwise and hit the highlights. (this post is in backward order because Im too lazy to go back and edit it in the order of the trip- deal with it :0)

We ended our trip with the Hoh Rainforest, and 50% of our kids were sleeping so we didn't spend much time here, Plus we were pooped.


The best tide pools in Washington are Hole in the Wall north of Rialto Beach. Its a mile and a half up the beach hike and You have to be sure to do it at low tide. We got the tide tables and the time we were there the tide wasn't going to be a very low tide since it wasn't a full moon, but we saw a ton. The rip tides were very powerful and there were the tiniest little pebbles on the beach. It was a lot more tiring hiking on the beach since the rocks are not stable so it takes twice as much energy to do it and with Mia in the pack it was really challenging. This was our last hike and the kids did not believe us that walking to the big old rock in the water would be worth it, but they didn't want to leave when we finally got there.


We found a tide pool where we felt comfortable letting Mia explore. Some were not very safe for our little dare devil. She learned all kinds of new words on this trip.

Really, the pictures do no do it justice, the weather was fantastic. it was bright and sunny for the most part then toward the end a mist came in for about 20 minutes and left again.

The kids loved climbing on the drift wood and skipping rocks in the water. Its amazing how powerful those waves are to pull in these huge washed up logs.

I have wanted to go to Sol Duc Falls for so long and was worried they would be all dried up by the time we got around to going!
We set up camp at the Sol Duc campground and found another stellar campsite that had levels. One level was a cooking area with the picnic table and the fire pit. Separated by trees there was a small pad for Big boys tent and up higher was the large area for the family tent then behind that were more logs to climb over. We were able to be choosy since there were many sites were available. We then headed out on the trail from the campground to the falls. It was about a 2.8 mile hike there, so it was going to be just over 5.5 miles round trip. There is a parking lot .8 miles from the falls but we wanted to go on a little longer hike. Mia was in the pack and she is no dainty thing so Ryan was carrying her. It allowed us to make a really good pace. (Last Hiking trip we took to St Helens she stopped in the middle of a really short trail and just stopped- not because she was tired, just because she could) The trail is great, there are lots of bridges and streams and change of scenery to keep the kids going. There is really no elevation gain to speak of. We got to the falls and Mia went crazy she was oohing and aaahhing pictures could never capture her excitement, Nor could it capture the beauty. It is a must see.

We found the best campsites I've ever seen. This one was in the Heart of the Hills campsite near Port Angeles just before Hurricane Ridge. This site was amazing. It was very spacious with downed trees behind us so the kids could climb all over them. There was only one campsite next to us and we had to search for their tent to even see it. In front of us was thick woods. They had picnic tables that were so easy to wipe clean. We had a pad for the large family tent and our big boy wanted to sleep on his own in the little tent and there was room to do that.


We were told the snow just barely melted off Hurricane Ridge and the kids were so happy to find one little patch of "snow" (more like dirty Ice) hanging on. It was enough to poke with a stick and make their hands cold. It was pretty funny how excited they were about it.

Apparently we caught it on a fairly good visibility day. Normally they said it is swirling with mist all the time up there, but we were able to see for a moment Mt Olympus and on the other side Victoria.

There is a reason they call it Hurricane Ridge

Our first stop was at the Dungeness Spit just on the north side of Sequim. This was a new discovery for us. It is the longest natural spit in the United states. It is maybe a mile from the trail head to the water. It goes out for 10 miles at the end is a light house. There was no way we were going to go out that far, but it was cool to see the strait of Juan De Fuca on one side with the crashing wild waves, and a calm smooth side where they say harbor pup seals have been sighted. We weren't lucky enough for that but we hit sunset right on. It is a definite must do again.

The whole summer I felt like I was missing something, it was spending time with my family in the great outdoors. The mountains and hiking and exploring really rejuvenates my soul. I was so happy to be able to go and were glad we weren't intimidated by the less than stellar weather forecasts. We were so glad we went and made family memories to last a lifetime! Summer can now officially be over.