We are more than two months into the trip, and it has been far too long since we posted here. We have had so many adventures! This post is about Washington, but we still have to write about camping in Canada (in June) and in Central Oregon (where we are now). I also have ideas for posts about trying to find a moment alone and campground etiquette. :) But for now, Washington...
Our family spent the month of July exploring Washington state, mostly the Olympic Peninsula, in our Apex Nano 194bhs. Highlights are first, followed by a more detailed description of where we stayed.
(Note - This is a long post, but it does cover a month!)
Highlights
We got kayaks! We got two sit-atop kayaks. The kids sit in the front. These have been a game-changer for us, both in terms of where we choose to camp and what we do wherever we are. We've kayaked down rivers, in canals, out of coves, and on lakes; in wind and waves, in blazing sun, and in sweatshirts. The kids have taken to this type of outdoor experience with zeal, for which we are so so thankful. My elbow (surgery last May) seems to be doing okay with it all. Derek keeps the kayaks on top of his truck and is the general manager of the boats and our safety. I am the keeper of suntan lotion and snacks. It's amazing!!
Autumn learned to ride a balance bike, and we traded Isaac's pedal bike (that he got at winter solstice, but was just too tall for him) back in for a balance bike. Together these two zoom around campgrounds like they were born for it.
Isaac and Derek started sleeping in the tent whenever we are allowed to set it up and the weather is right. Cody joined them in Ashford. This has been a game changer for our sleeping situation, as in, everyone gets more sleep.
A more detailed account of our journey over 33 days in Washington state
We crossed the Canadian border into the United States on June 30. We were grateful for the gps that guided us to a smaller border crossing near Sumas, WA where we didn't have to wait in any lines, as it was Canada Day weekend which means higher border traffic than normal. The border guard was friendly (friendlier than the Canadian guard when we crossed into the Yukon, actually!), and we passed through without incident.
A tip for families traveling in separate vehicles: Make sure to have the correct passports for whichever kid is in your vehicle and be prepared for questions hinting at kidnapping, something along the lines of "Where is their [other] caregiver? Do they know you're here?".
And for those traveling with pets: Be prepared with the necessary paperwork to show their health and vaccination status. This is a pretty straightforward form that you can get from your vet (probably, they do need to be accredited) before you travel.
Our first camp site in the states was at the super lovely Birch Bay State Park in Blaine, WA. We highly recommend this clean, well-laid-out campground. We did not have hook-ups, but those sites do exist - if you book early enough! It was a good mix of tent campers and rvs. At 21ft long, our travel trailer was one of the bigger rvs in the park (which was so weird after camping in Alaska and traveling down the Alcan with all the big rigs around us).
Side note - Since we've been in the states we have found that our camper length, especially when you add in the length of the truck that we pull it with, is a barrier to accessing many county, state, and national parks more than we thought it would be (commercial campgrounds have been fine, for the most part - but be careful with KOA...definitely call them to discuss your full length!). Even though we can disconnect after we set up, we need at least a 46ft-long site to back in the trailer, level it, and prep a few things before disconnecting, and blocking the road to do so is a major no-no (more on that in the etiquette post).
We spent our five beautiful (and hot!) days at Birch Bay exploring tide pools, swinging and climbing at the waterfront playground, trying out our new kayaks, biking the paved loops, and sleeping better than ever with Derek and Isaac in the tent every night (thank goodness Isaac thinks the tent is the bee's knees). It felt like this was the campground where we really started to get our groove. Isaac made his first campground friend (who he still talks about, even remembers the street he lives on in Moses Lake, WA).
Isaac has had a knack for making friends everywhere we go, and he is truly disappointed when they or we leave. This has been hard on him, and hard for us to watch. We keep telling ourselves that the journey - as an opportunity for family time, to plant seeds for loving travel and adventure in our children, and for exploring our beautiful country - is worth these kinds of challenges for our kids.
From Blaine we moved south for a quick night at Millersylvania State Park (with hook-ups this time) on our way to the Olympic Peninsula. This was not the fastest route to our first Olympic campground, but it did take us through Olympia, my old stomping grounds, and Derek didn't want to take a ferry with the camper, which I totally get. That thing is hard enough to pull around regular roads! Millersylvania's campground is at a very popular lake which we took full advantage of. It was 4th of July, so the beach was even more crowded than usual, but the kids still had a blast in the water and they tried their first hot dogs (a resounding "meh", from both of them).
The Olympic Peninsula
Before I tell you about our time on the Olympic Peninsula, let me just pen a little bit of a love letter to this special place:
The Olympics are a unique mountain range that sit in the middle of a peninsula on Washington's northwest side. They are full of meandering rivers, waterfalls, snowy peaks, and rainforests. A single "highway" - U.S. 101 - encircles them. Access into the actual mountains is only granted for a few miles on small roads, many dirt and severely potholed; mostly you have to walk into the mountains to explore them which keeps the interior, also a national park, a pristine wilderness not found in many places within the United States outside of Alaska.
In my backpacking days when I lived in Olympia and Seattle, there was no better place to escape the city and recharge than Olympic National Park. On the east side you have the Hood Canal, dense old growth forests, tide flats, and many, many days of clouds and rain (hence the incredible trees). To the west are the beaches and the rainforests (and, obviously, more rain). The Pacific Ocean is cold and awesome in the truest sense of the word, with sea stacks, pelicans, and crashing waves that humble me every time I stand on its rocky shoreline. The rainforests engulf you - majestic cedars, Douglas firs, and hemlock tower above, while the vegetation below is so dense (and often prickly!) that you are consistently grateful for the well-maintained trails that give you access to the quiet, ethereal beauty of the forest. Along the north side of the peninsula is the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From here you can find hot springs inside the park or take a ferry to the San Juans or Vancouver Island. The northeast part of the peninsula (think Port Townsend & Sequim) gets very little rain; abundant sun and low humidity mean epic mountain views, lavender fields, starry skies, and the ability to stay outside for most hours of the day.
I cannot stress my love of the Olympic Peninsula enough. No matter how you choose to explore it, please go. There is something for everyone. And even on the rainiest days it is a place of wonder and magic.
We spent the majority of our time in Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. We stayed in four campgrounds and one airbnb. Our first campground was Sol Duc Hot Springs, in the north part of the national park. We had a pull-through site (A18) with enough space for our camper & truck plus my car, which was great. Derek didn't have to disconnect. After Liard Hot Springs in BC, these felt very different, kind of commercial-y. It was like visiting a country club except the swimming pools were hot and smelled like sulfur. There was also a big, non-heated real swimming pool which Autumn and Derek were brave enough to swim in, but Isaac and I didn't really like because it was so cold. We were glad for the easy access to trails, the sound of the creek tripping past our campsite, the space for our tent, and the little restaurant's pizza option for the kids. We truly unplugged here (no Starlink, no data) and it was glorious, even with the kids' struggles to go to sleep at any sort of reasonable hour.
From Sol Duc we headed to nearby Port Angeles. We hit our "one month on the road" mark here, at Elwha Dam RV Park, a commercial campground about 15 minutes outside of the city. The site was a super tight fit for us, but Derek managed to back in and we could fit both truck and subaru once the truck was disconnected. Our neighbors were close, but kind. The campground had a big play area for the kids, good showers, and a pick-what-you-want garden that Isaac fell in love with (he's been really into salad this trip). We chose this campground because of its centrality to so much of the north side of the peninsula, and we took full advantage. We ferried to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a day, explored a lavender farm, ate well in Port Angeles, kayaked on Lake Sutherland, and hiked on the local trails. My summer course started while we were here, and the Starlink did really well to support my facilitation needs on Zoom.
After Port A we stayed at the Riverview RV Park in LaPush, WA. I had really wanted to stay near the coast but couldn't book anything. This park was only six miles away from Rialto Beach so it was a great alternative to Kalaloch (my first choice) or Mora (our rig didn't fit, and they were full anyway). There were some hiccups in settling in at Riverview (like an 11pm knock on the door from security the first night telling us we couldn't have a tent set up as well as an rv - only one "habitable" establishment per site. We thought this was so weird but have since run into this rule at a number of campgrounds, so I guess it's not. It was my fault - I didn't read the small print), but overall the clean showers, laundry facility, and easy access to both rivers and ocean were wonderful! We kayaked for about three miles on the Quillayute River during our stay, from a county park to the LaPush marina. It was perfect paddling for a lot of the trip - sunshine, calm waters, a little bit of wind, shallow enough in parts for the kids to get out and play in the river - but the last 30 minutes were a struggle as we battled the winds coming off the Pacific. I was really proud of how calm the kids stayed as Derek and I paddled with all our might to get into the marina. Phew! Challenging, but worth it for sure.
Our last campground on the Olympic Peninsula was at Dosewallips State Park. No hook-ups for us here, but enough room in our site for our tent, which was great. An elk herd came right through the campground a few times and a tidal flat ripe for exploring was just across the road. There were trails through the forest that inspired me to start running (erm...jogging, slowly) again after a four-year hiatus. We kayaked on the Hood Canal out of Triton Cove on a beautiful day. The kids saw their first jellyfish!
For our final four days on the peninsula we rented an airbnb in Grant, WA (near Shelton) on Pickering Passage, an arm of the Puget Sound. We could kayak right from our front door! We got to visit with my aunt and uncle who live in Burien and some of my dear friends in Olympia which felt really great. We also were able to give the camper a deep cleaning. After six weeks on the road - many dirt roads in Canada! - this was so needed.
Two weeks on the Olympic Peninsula weren't enough - not by a long shot - but we are grateful for the time we had!
The "Not Olympic Peninsula" time (hahaha...maybe only I find this subtitle funny?)
We stayed in three more campgrounds and one more airbnb over the next two weeks in Washington. They were all lovely, but I'll try to summarize them more succinctly than I did with the Olympic Peninsula stays. :)
First we headed to Seaquest State Park in Castle Rock, on the outskirts of the Mt. St. Helens area. The campground was great, if a bit exposed/hot. We had hook-ups, there was a playground, and the showers were free. Across the street was the Mt. St. Helens Interpretive Center at Silver Lake. Isaac got his first junior ranger badge (junior geologist, to be specific) by drawing about what he was learning and then explaining his drawings to the ranger. Go Isaac!
Next we headed to Ashford to visit Mt. Rainier. We stayed on an RV pad I found through airbnb. The site had no hook-ups or bathroom (not recommended for rv camping, especially full-timing...iykyk), but it was on a little pond and deer came through the site every day. We had privacy, plenty of room to set up the tent, and Mt. Rainier National Park was only six miles away.
Fyi - what they're saying about long lines to enter national parks these days is true. We timed well and only waited about 20 minutes each time we went in, but just be aware! Summer time + any time between 10am and 3pm = probably not a great time to try to go into a major national park these days.
We did a drive through the park the first day with the intention of hiking around Paradise, but it was too crowded at the top so we opted for lunch and the little (free) museum at Longmire. The next trip we did a hike to Kautz Creek. Gorgeous!
From Ashford we headed to Toledo and our first county park (city park, maybe?), Kemp Olson Memorial Park & Campground. What a gem! There was a fantastic playground and small spray park. We practically had the place to ourselves. The town of Toledo was cute and welcoming and we had an awesome paddle on the Cowlitz River. We're grateful for two vehicles to do these point-to-point trips, and for Mike, the guy who manages this website about kayaking the Cowlitz, and who we accidentally met when I drove up to a guy who had kayaks on his car to ask about the trips I had read about...on his website. {{small town...mind blown!}}
We finished our stay in Washington, and the month of July, at an airbnb in Long Beach. We didn't really want to stay in an airbnb again; it's just not the same as your own home, you know? But I really wanted to take the family to Long Beach, and I couldn't get a site at any of the campgrounds. So, we got a two bedroom cottage a 10-minute walk from the beach at Rosemont Terrace. It is also a long-term RV park and they let us park our camper in a site near the cottage, which was really helpful. We played in the water, flew kites, and drove our truck from one end of the beach to the other. Did you know that Long Beach is the "world's longest contiguous peninsula beach" and that the "road" on the beach is an official WA state highway? Also, it's really beautiful.
Washington was a great place to start our U.S. adventures. Now we're in Oregon - central Oregon to be precise, on top of the canyon rim between the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers in a small town called Terrebonne. There are big wildfires raging too close for comfort, but otherwise the high desert scenery is stark and beautiful. We're hoping for a break in the smoke tomorrow so we can paddle on the Deschutes River in Bend. When we leave this part of the state I'll be sure to post again about the great places we've stayed and adventures we've had!
See you out there.
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