Driving Through Olympic National Park

 

Took this picture just before sundown yesterday (Wednesday)...other than the two sites to the left of the dumpster, I think all the other sites were full on the north side of the campground, and on the south side there was one or two available last I had looked.  It was a quiet night, with the purrrr of the ocean waves about the only sounds we heard.  I am still surprised that the park did not fill up all the way...in fact, I only recall seeing about three parks with signs out that said the park full on our entire trip.  Maybe the high gas prices have kept people from traveling...

       

Much of our drive today was on open roads, a few vehicles here and there, and about 5 construction zones controlled by stop lights.  No wait was longer than 3 minutes, and all involved either bridge reconstructions, or damage due to landslides.

About 20 miles west of Port Angeles, we past by Lake Crescent , a deep lake located entirely within Olympic National Park.  With a depth of 624 feet, it is the second deepest lake in the State of Washington.  For comparison, Lake Tahoe is 1,645 feet deep while Crater Lake is over 1,900 feet deep.

 

The lake is known for blue waters and clarity because of low levels of nitrogen in the water, inhibiting algae growth.  I tend to gently touch up many of our photos, but this photo above is just how it turned out.  The lake is real blue, much like Lake Tahoe was when I was young.

 

The last time we were at Olympic National Park was back in August of 2015.  I remembered the view from the Visitor's Center at Hurricane Ridge as being spectacular...but smoke from a rare Olympic NP fire obscured the view...so that was the one spot we wanted to see today.  On the way up the Hurricane Ridge Road, you come to Morse Creek Overlook, and you can see Mt. Baker way off in the distance, and the water way in the picture is the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with a bit of the Puget Sound way off to the east.  The largest city in the far east in the picture would be Bellingham, which is north of Seattle by 80+ miles.  So Seattle is just to the right of the picture.

 

 

Well, surprise, surprise...the Visitor's Center, formally known as Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge burned down back in May of 2023.  They were working on a massive remodel of the 1950's era building, and the fire totally destroyed the entire building.  They are in the process of planning a new Visitor's Center there.  The views from the old building were spectacular...now all views here include this fence.

 UNLESS, you are a deer...

 

Above is a picture from 2015 of the names of all the mountain peaks you can see from the Hurricane Ridge area.  Below are some of the pictures we took today.

There were lots of cars in the parking area, construction equipment, and people, people and more people...and a few dears too.

Tonight we are in the 7 Cedars Casino parking lot.  They have hookups for around a dozen RVs, at $20 a night, but we don't need electricity so we are camping for free.  Gotta love these Casinos.  Tomorrow we hope to make it the 170 miles to Mt. Rainier after a stop in the Olympia  area for gas and groceries at Fred Meyer.  

Hurricane Ridge -- Dungeness Scenic Loop

Yes, I got up at 5 am, waited for a bit more light by reading a few newspapers online, and out of the RV before 5:45 (Marcia stayed in bed, and I had NO COFFEE because I did not want to turn our generator on so early)   Yesterday I posted a picture from our trip on Friday to Hurricane Ridge…this one above is from the same spot...what a difference a day makes.  The “peak” in the far distance, barely visible, is Mt. Baker. The communities of Port Angeles and Sequim are on this side of the water.  Oh, what a wonderful morning it was.

This is from the same viewing point, but more north looking out to Victoria and Vancouver Island.

The road to Hurricane Ridge goes through a few tunnels, and winds to the southwest.  Here the hills are alive with the newly found sunlight (but no music).

As I wind along the road, with no other cars in sight, I see a deer off in the distance along the road…I slow, she sees me, she has the other two or three deer with her flee to cover.  I slowly proceed toward her, she stares me down…I take this shot, and she ducks to picture left down into the tall grass as I drive by.  Oh yes, what a wonderful morning this is….

I get to the top and the visitor’s center has a nice view.  This is a panoramic view is one which the camera puts together….I set the camera for panoramic, point to the left, click the shutter button, and scan as level and steady as I can to my right, click the shutter and I am done.  That is smoke down in the valley, nearly hiding the mountains.  Olympic National Park rarely gets fires, this one started in May and is still going.  They are just containing it, and letting it burn…I guess they forgot about the 1988 Yellowstone fire that they “allowed to burn” and nearly burned the entire park down!   If you click on the picture it will open up a much larger view.

Here is an information board which points out the names of every peak, the glaciers and the rivers below.  If you click on it, it will open into a larger, readable picture.

Here is Mt. Olympus and Mt. Carrie…see the moon in the upper right?  The moon was in a previous picture too, but I’ll bet you missed it.  Just like I just about missed….

….these two deer, mother and fawn, walking right in front of me.  In fact, in the panoramic I think I can make them out in the lower left corner.  I was so engulfed at the wonderful view of the mountains…I nearly let these two pass by without being seen.

What a cute little thing this one is!  Following and obeying mom, keeping an eye on me, and ready to take off at a moments notice.

They walked off to my right, up the slope and close to the car…and when my little companion Skruffy saw them, she let them have it!  But they knew she was there, confined to the car, and didn’t even miss a step as they walked by, which just infuriated poor little Skruffy to death!

I walked up the car, and just had to have one more shot of Mt. Olympus and the surrounding peaks.  Yep, this has been a wonderful morning.  All in all, I was gone for just over 90 minutes…saw about 8 deer, some large birds which were hiding in the tall grass, and not a human being from the first turn out until I was driving back down and saw three or four cars headed up.  Yep, a wonderful morning!!!!  If it wasn't for that smoke, it would have been nearly perfect...

Around 1 pm we departed the camp and went “looking for a light house”.  We found it out on the Dungeness Spit, this is the ‘New’ Dungeness Lighthouse.  And guess what?  They seek people to go to the lighthouse for a week to care for it, do some light work, and help maintain the lighthouse for others to see in the future.  If you are in the area and just wish to see it, just take the Dungeness Scenic Loop which takes you through the downtown area of Sequim, and out to the Sound.

But it is not a place for those who are squeamish of birds…because there are lots of birds.  In fact, if you look at the lighthouse picture above, there is a large seagull flying between the house on the right and the lighthouse itself.

Here is a bit different view of the lighthouse from a bit further to the west.

You have to see this panoramic view at the Dungeness Recreation Area which, by-the-way, has RV sites much like a National Forest Campground.  It was full today when we drove through the campground, and it has reservable sites.  I doubt you get a senior savings with your National Park card though.

A distant view of Victoria B.C., where we will be going on Tuesday via the ferry.  As of now, we are going to pay for one more night here at Heart of the Hills, then move to a full-hookup park for Monday and Tuesday nights.  Monday we will move, probably do some laundry, and get ready for Tuesday.  As for tomorrow, we found a church in Port Angeles, then we will get lunch and take it easy the rest of the day…or will we????

Lunch with Bloggers, LuminAID Lanterns

When we realized we were headed directly to Washington, and Barbara saw that we would be in the same area as her and Ron would be in, we all decided to have a “blogger meet up”, which typically means, “Lunch or Dinner”.  This time it was lunch, and Barbara, being low on bits and bytes with her cellular data plan, asked me to find a place and email her the location.  Well, I picked a place called “Chestnut Cottage Restaurant”, and it turned out to a perfect place for a blogger lunch.  The menu had variety, the food was good, the service was good, and the place was charming.  Best of all  was the company…it was truly a pleasure to meet Barbara and Ron.  Barbara has been authoring the blog “The Road Less Traveled”, in its current format, since early 2008.  Prior to that she was doing another blog, might have been under the same name or another, that I cannot remember.  I know I have been reading her blogs since at least 2005, give or take a year.  I also follow her sister’s blog, “Life on the Open Road”, but I did not realize they were sisters until just a few years ago.  It is always a pleasure to meet fellow bloggers who are on the road, and a real pleasure when you have followed them for so very long.  And yes, she follows and comments on our blog too.

We were telling them about how we had recently ordered LuminAID PackLite Spectra Lantern and set one up in the motorhome last night as a floor light.  By 3 am its battery ran out, and I turned on the second one. At 7:30 this morning that one was still going.  What is nice about them is they are solar powered, and they fold up to take a very small amount of room for storage.

We refolded them and put them on the dash of our car as we traveled into town, and later on our short road trip up to Hurricane Ridge. Now they are ready for tonight.  There are so many large trees at our campground that we just could not get them charged by setting them outside.  Normally we turn on our floor lights, but without any electrical hookups in the park, this was a better way of handling lighting for the floor.  Amazingly, it puts out a lot light.  You blow them up like a beach ball, and the light just luminates out from all sides except the solar side.  The style we got comes in many different colors just by clicking the on switch.  There is an orange strap which allows you to hang them from hooks, awnings, side mirrors, cabinets handles, etc.  It shinned so much last night that I ended up putting it on the floor near the fridge across from the bathroom…and that worked out just great.   LuminAID, has distributed over 10,000 lights in more than 50 countries to individuals in need of a better, safer, and cleaner source of light through their “Give Light, Get Light” program. Marsha first saw these on Shark Tank, and this is the first time we have had a reason to use them. 

About a dozen miles up the road from our campground is the Hurricane Ridge area.  We stopped and picked up the dogs, and headed on up there after our lunch meeting and a drop by to Walmart.  Unfortunately, the smoky/smoggy skies would not allow a good picture, so I am going to try and head up there early in the morning and see what I can get.  So I will tell the story of Hurricane Ridge tomorrow.