Olympic Peninsula

 4-6 August 2014

C.J. and I had not been to the Olympics for several years, so a stretch of good weather convinced us to hook up the trailer and try out my state "disabled veteran" ID card at a state park campground. After looking at various parks online, I picked Fort Flagler as having the best camping (Sequim Bay's RV sites looked like a parking lot), kayaking and historic hikes. I made the (free) reservation and got a receipt for my campsite ($0.00) - what a great deal! For the rest of the trip we would stay in non-reservable National Park and/or USFS campgrounds, or maybe another state park.

4 Aug, Mon - We left early enough to get to Flagler by 1230 but not so early that we ran into rush hour traffic. Although our GPS suggested we take the ferry from Seattle, we drove south and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (no toll westbound). We stopped for gas at the Costco in Silverdale (361.9). As we

Indian Island bluffs from Ft. Flagler

approached Oak Bay/Indian Island/Marrowstone Island, we looked at the possibility of doing the circumnavigation of Indian Island. The tide appeared to be wrong for easily crossing the causeway at the south end of Kilisut Harbor so we decided to go with a shorter paddle from Flagler to Mystery Bay. After setting up the trailer in a shaded pull-thru site (82) in the lower loop we walked over to the boat launch to check it out. We decided to drive over there rather than try pulling the kayak on its wheeled cart. Launching on the concrete ramp was easy enough and we were soon paddling along the high-bluffed shore of Marrowstone Island with a following breeze. We saw lots of birds, mostly ducks with bright red feet and sporting small fish in their beaks. In the clear shallow water we could see black, round fuzzy things that we finally figured out were what living sand dollars look like. It took us more than an hour to reach the entrance to Mystery Bay but we were ready for a shore break. Fortunately there is a state park with a dock and a launch ramp. We had already had lunch, but we had a snack and used the facilities before re-launching. By now the wind had picked up and it was making some white caps out in the middle of the bay. We hugged the shore and took the small swells on our port bow (we had snapped on our spray skirts for the paddle back to Flagler). Despite the wind, and maybe because we didn't dawdle for sightseeing, we made it back almost as fast as we had going downwind. We were pretty tired even though we hadn't paddled more than five miles or so (Later - 6.5 mi, according to Google Earth), but we got the kayak back up on the roof okay, and returned to camp long enough to shed our wet gear - sandals, spray skirts, gloves and stuff. Then we drove out to the  park entrance and walked the short 0.6 mi trail to the site of a coast artillery searchlight where the view of Admiralty Inlet was supposed to be particularly good. That must have been written before all the trees had grown up to block the view. Still we could see across the Inlet to Whidbey Island, and farther to Mt. Baker. Back at camp C.J. prepared a delicious chef's salad and we ate outside on the picnic table. After dinner we went out for a walk down to the beach. Near the end of the

River otter on Flagler north beach

parking lot and a boat ramp into open water we stopped to look at a "camel", an anchor used to hold part of an anti-submarine net or cables with spikes to stop, or slow, small boats that an enemy might dispatch to attack the naval munitions supply or coastal cities. The sun was nearly setting as we walked east along the beach. Ahead we could see a beached sailboat and then suddenly there was a blur of brown, furry bodies as a large and small sea otter rushed across the beach and into the water. Even when they returned to the sandy beach it was hard to get a good picture in the low light. We turned around at the beached sailboat and made our way back to camp through the Marine Trails campsite.

5 Aug, Tue - We got up at 0800 - no furnace needed in the summer, although the atmosphere was foggy - and were on our way by 1000. We drove across the Quimper Peninsula along Discovery Bay, past Sequim Bay and Sequim (where there is now a Costco, according to our GPS) to Port Angeles and the road to Hurricane Ridge. It was five miles in to the entrance station and the Heart O' the Hills campground. We drove through several loops before finding a good, if somewhat slope-y, pull-thru (#100). We paid the $6 "golden geezer" rate and left the trailer locked up while we headed up the fourteen miles to Hurricane Ridge. We had already driven out of the fog by the time we reached Port Angeles so the sky was clear and bright blue. After a brief stop at the visitor center, we drove out to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. The parking lot was full and we had to return 1/4 mi to the overflow parking lot at a picnic area. That added just a little to the 1.6 mi trail, but at least we didn't have to walk on the road. We were there on a Tuesday; imagine what the crowd must be like on a weekend. We must have descended on the road from the 5242 ft visitor center because the trailhead was at about 4800 ft and the elevation gain is about 1000 ft. to the top of Hurricane Hill. Along the way we saw a big deer, maybe an elk, descend a steep hillside above the trail. When we reached the top, after a scenic lunch stop, there was a great view toward Victoria and Vancouver Island, and back toward Mt. Olympus and the high Olympics. Someone (a hiker using a wheeled walker!) had told us she saw a big mountain goat near the summit and C.J. spotted him lying a short distance to the east in a grove of trees. We got as close as we dared to get some photos (not as close as some hikers who obviously had not heard about the hiker fatally gored by a goat several years ago). The trip down the mostly-paved trail was not bad (especially the close-up of the doe and fawn) and we took a moment in the visitor center before heading down the mountain to our campsite. [Unfortunately the ice cream selection - a freezer case of novelties - had nothing to tempt us.] After dinner we took a walk around the campground and found a very few empty spots (out of 109 sites).

Hole-in-the-Wall, Rialto Beach

6 Aug, Wed - Last night we had decided to head to the west side of the peninsula so we got a reasonably early start knowing that the park roads, especially around Crescent Lake, are notoriously slow. We could have gone back to Ozette Lake and done some paddling, or we could have gone to the popular Ruby Beach for a very short hike. Instead we chose to go for the slightly longer hike from Rialto Beach near LaPush to Hole-in-the-Wall, an erosion arch in a rocky ridge. At the road junction for LaPush or Rialto Beach/Mora Campground, we passed a sign "No Vampires --- Treaty Line", a reference to the Twilight novel series (Vampires were not allowed on the Indian Reservation). There was also a sign that looked like a fire danger warning that was instead a Vampire Warning. [The arrow was on "high" maybe because we were back in the fog.] There was plenty of room in the RV/overnight-backpacker lot and we dressed for cool weather before starting off north along the mostly sandy beach. It was not crowded although later, on the return trip, there were many more people. There were lots of small (3 in.) blue jellyfish with rigid dorsal sails at the high tide line. We spotted a bald eagle in a

C.J. approaching Hole-in-the-Wall

dead tree and lots of gulls but that was about it for wildlife. We did not have to wade Ellen Creek which usually flows across the beach. When we passed the big sea stack and reached the Hole-in-the-Wall, the tide was still too high to attempt to walk through the arch. We climbed to the top of the ridge on the steep hikers trail for some photos back along the beach and ahead, now that the sun had finally burned off the fog. It was a 3-mi round trip, much warmer on the way back. Back  on the road we took a detour to check out Mora campground - nicely wooded, not like a beach campground at all. In Forks we got enough gas ($30 at 391.9) to get us to Olympia. We passed the entrance to Hoh Valley and continued on, planning to camp at one of the three USFS sites on Lake Quinault. But when we reached Amanda Park and turned into the first campground we found that it was a reservation-only CG with Quinault Lodge running the

C.J. on trail over the headland at Hole-in-the-Wall

reservations. We checked out the other two CGs bu they were either filled (at least the sites that would accommodate our little trailer) or were walk-ins (at $20 each!). There wasn't much choice - too far to go back to Hoh and the rest of 101 looked pretty sparse for campgrounds. Our old map showed a Rayonier Forestry CG down the road a way so we headed there only to find it had been closed. We could have gone over to the coast, a long detour, to a couple of state parks (Pacific Beach and Ocean

Black Bear Diner

City) but that seemed chancy and I'm not crazy about beach camping. So we settled for driving home with a stop for dinner in Olympia to let the rush hour traffic dissipate. We got our chance to finally eat at a Black Bear Diner located just west of Olympia near the big mall. The food was okay; portions were large and we were glad to have ordered a BBQ platter to share rather than two separate meals. Traffic was light on the way up I-5 and we stopped for gas at Covington just as the gas light came on. It was still light when we pulled into the driveway.