Thursday, July 30, 2015

Heart O’ the Hills–Olympic National Park

 Puget Sound along US 101

Casino Parking Lot Camping worked out great!  By 7:30 this morning we were on the road again…both amazed that the parking lot full of cars was empty except for a small handful of cars, and the dozen or so RVs parked in the back near us.  The drive up to Port Angeles was very pretty, and above you can see one of our first opportunities to get a picture of the Puget Sound, which is named after Peter Puget, a Huguenot lieutenant accompanying Captain George Vancouver's Expedition (Vancouver was an officer of the British Royal Navy).

 Puget Sound along US 101

With the sun raising up over the east, many of our glimpses were through trees and bushes, with the sun glaring on us.

 Puget Sound along US 101

Sometimes Marcia was able to get a more northern view (first pictures) or southern view (above), and what a view it was!

US 101

But much of the drive was just a pretty, tree lined two lane highway, which goes through a number of small communities, and provides that occasional glimpse of the Puget Sound.

Heart O’ the Hills Campground, Olympic National Park

We arrived at Heart O’ the Hills Campground in the Olympic National Park around 10:30.  Entrance fee was free with the senior pass, and camping fees were $10 per night with the pass, and we paid for three nights.  There are five different loops in the campground, and a total of 105 camping spots.  It is difficult to find a spot large enough to accommodate our 28’ motorhome and little HHR.  Tried a spot that fit the motorhome but the car could not fit without blocking the road.  We found this spot, loop A campsite #10 which just does fit us. 

Heart O’ the Hills Campground, Olympic National Park

We are along the road, but there is little traffic and no dust kicks up.  Those who have passed by today so far have been looking for a spot for themselves, although there have be a few who just want to look around.  For the most part there are small trailers and tent-trailers.

Heart O’ the Hills Campground, Olympic National Park

For the most part, this is the lush green forest that we gaze out upon….what a lovely, and cool (80 degrees at 3 pm) place to be.  Of course, with all these trees, there is no room for very much solar power…so we will have to run our generator just a little more, but we hope it is not too much…perhaps 90 minutes per day.

HeartOfTheHillsCampgroundMap

At 5 pm I drove through all five loops.  Loop A, where we are, has two open spots, and there are about twenty open spots altogether in the other loops.  Only one or two “might” have met our needs.  I read that this campground was laid out for tent camping, and RVs was an afterthought.  Perhaps that is why so many sites are small, narrow and at a slant.  If you have a Class A, you are pretty much out of luck…only saw one modern class A in the park, and two smallers, older, Class A motorhomes.  I am just glad we got here as early as we did…or we would have been going to plan “B”, which would have cost more money, and not had nearly the appeal this place has.

2 comments:

  1. You got a nice site. Enjoy your stay!
    We hit the heat today - over 90 in Spokane and it doesn't look like it gets any better going east. I'll have to see if I can find a route that goes into the mountains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is a nice park...not sure how many people are going to try and get in here today...just saw a large Class A pulling a large SUV, and I know they are not going to find a spot that big that isn't already taken. Saw a teardrop trailer in a large pull through, kinda laughed at that one..got to wonder if the people realized what they did, or just picked a "good place". That teardrop could have fit in many more spots keeping that one open for a larger unit. Sorry for your heat...maybe if you picked a route that went through Banff and Jasper up in Canada??? :)

      Delete

We love to hear comments from our readers. All comments are moderated by Dave before added to the website. Spam, advertisers and rude comments are deleted, and due to high spam attempts, Anonymous Users cannot post, sorry....register for a Google ID, it is free and it is easy. Go to: Get Google ID