Mountains, Ocean and Rainforests, all in one Epic State!
During our visit to Washington, we explored the beautiful Olympic National Park, took a ferry over the Puget Sound and visited the iconic Pike Place Market in Seattle. Olympic National Park is an absolute must visit, with so much to offer.
This trip took place in July 2023.
To see our whole adventure – check out our vlog:
Note – this picks up on Day 12 of our trip. To see the parts in California, click HERE … and in Oregon, click HERE.
- Day 12: Astoria to Lake Quinault
- Day 13: Lake Quinault to Hoh Rainforest to Kalaloch
- Day 14: Kalaloch to Sol Duc
- Day 15: Sol Duc to Lake Crescent
- Day 16: Lake Crescent to Seattle
Day 12 – Astoria to Lake Quinault
Today was our first day in Washington, our kids 40th state!
We grabbed some groceries for the next few days since we were heading into Olympic National Park and would be without great food options, made another quick stop at a park to play basketball then we were on our way!
First stop was Cape Disappointment. Conflicting results on where this strange name originated back in the late 1700’s… but it’s either when a British explorer was trying to locate a bay, but instead found the mouth of the Columbia River and couldn’t enter OR, he couldn’t find the mouth of the river at all. Either way, he was disappointed. 😀 We walked up to the bunkers, the visitor center and checked out the lighthouse. Then we drove to the North Lighthouse, which was a short walk from the parking lot. You could go up in the lighthouse if you wanted but it cost a few bucks (cash) and you had to have closed toed shoes which 2 of us didn’t. Even without going up in the lighthouse, you still get amazing views of the coast.
Next, we drove towards Lake Quinault, our stopping point for the night, but made a stop first for lunch in South Bend. I had found this place a while back if the timing worked out for lunch, and it did. It was called Betzy’s Mexican Restaurant and was a small little hole in the wall place with amazing, inexpensive food. We sat right on the bay at a picnic table and enjoyed. There was also a great coffee shop in the same parking lot that we enjoyed. Oh, AND the world largest oyster!
Back on the road and finished our drive, checking into our hotel, Rainforest Village. It was… not very modern 🙂 But it had chairs out front where you could see the lake, and it had 2 bedrooms which is nice when you’ve spent 2 weeks together and need space from your kids 😀 But actually, even though the hotel was a little run down, it was one of my favorites of the trip. Sitting in the rainforest, overlooking the lake and huge trees, and how peaceful it was… really made for a wonderful evening.
We were really tired of driving at this point, and had planned to do the full loop around the lake, but decided to just focus on a few waterfalls closer to our hotel. I think this was the right move. We drove first to Merriman Falls, which was so beautiful and we could walk right up to the falls.
Next we went to Bunch Falls, which was another one you could climb all over. These were some of the best waterfalls we’ve seen. No cell coverage here so make sure to do what I did and write down exact mileage to the falls that you have to drive. For Bunch Falls, we thought we missed it at some point.
After that, we drove past our hotel to Lake Quinault Lodge – wow, so beautiful. If you get a chance to stay here – wow. It’s wonderful. You can walk along the property, so we checked out the yard, played some of the yard games, then left before our envy went too far. Our hotel did have a very similar view though and was way cheaper. For dinner, we decided to get takeout from the Salmon Restaurant right by our hotel, we could walk there and it looked good and just seemed like a good idea, so we saved our food we bought. Also – as we learned in the national park, we didn’t have microwaves anywhere. So we bought microwave food and couldn’t use it 😐 I didn’t know this! We also didn’t have a fridge so we thankfully had a cooler and could go get ice. After dinner, went on a walk around the lake to see some enormous trees.
Day 13 – Lake Quinault to Hoh Rainforest to Kalaloch
We got up really early and headed to Hoh Rainforest– which was about 1.5hr drive. (not fun for week 2 of this trip – if you’re not on day 13 of driving – no big deal!). We were glad we got there early because later in the day the lines we insane to get in.
We got right in though, parked and were ready to go. Our plan was to walk the Hoh River trail as long as we could then turn around. We had packed lunches and planned to eat along the trail but then saw tons of signs about keeping food in bear proof containers etc. It probably would have been fine but we figured it wasn’t safe to take our food. So instead we just did about 2.5 miles out and 2.5 back which was fine, it was a great hike. This trail also stretches out almost 18 miles, and people often do the hike as a backpacking trip. So – it leaves a lot of opportunity for however long you want to hike. Our trip got us back around noon. The trail was beautiful and not as popular as the others. It’s such an amazing environment. Everything is so green and lush with trees and moss and vines everywhere you look. The river was insanely clear and the trees were so beautiful. We got rained on during our walk back, but other than that, it was a great hike – and, we were in a rainforest, so kind of to be expected.
We ate at the picnic tables when we arrived back. Then we decided to go ahead and do the Hall of Mosses which is a fairly short trail. It’s crowded, and very popular but for good reason. We saw lots of banana slugs, beautiful trees and really enjoyed this hike.
Afterwards, we left and headed back to Kalaloch Lodge. We did have to backtrack here to the hotel, but we were glad we did because the hotel was beautiful. We stayed in the cheapest room (basically a hotel room) but still could (kind of) see the ocean. It had adirondack chairs outside which is always nice when you can put kids to bed then sit outside. Staying in the cheapest option was honestly fine – you could walk right up to the ocean.
During the evening, we played on the beach and built a dam with driftwood. Then we bought hot dogs and buns (overpriced, but again, with no fridge, we were kind of stuck), and smores and roasted them over the fire. We didn’t have our own firepit like the cabins did, but there was a shared one that overlooked the beach. It was absolutely perfect. We were going to do a fire on the beach but this was just as good. They also had some boogie boards you can share and my husband and older son did that for a little bit in the evening. And – of course, a fabulous sunset.
Day 14 – Kalaloch to Sol Duc
In the morning, on our way out, we drove to the Tree of Life. It’s a quick walk from the parking lot at the campground right down the street.
We drove to Forks and made a few stops here. Fork’s is known for being the home of the movie Twilight. I don’t have any care about this movie at all, but still kind of funny to see some of the props around town, like at the visitor center. Next up, we drove to John’s Beechcoming museum. This was incredible. We met John and paid just a bit to get into the museum where we could see all of the items he has collected over 40 years. He started when he was a kid, picking up things off the beach. Over the years, he made it a hobby, until it turned into (a little bit of…) an obsession. The whole museum was full of stuff – including lots of random things (beach toys, bottles, plastics), but also some amazing things, like debris from tsunamis in Asia, or notes in bottles. We really enjoyed talking to John about all that he has learned over the years by doing this.
After that, we grabbed food and ate at a park. We got FYABES Mexican (awesome) and the kids got Sully’s Burgers, which was a cute diner place. We then made a quick stop at the grocery for food for the evening, including some more hot dogs and smores, because that was so fun the night before.
We drove to Sol Duc next – only making one quick stop at Salmon Cascades – there were no salmon at this time but just seeing the area where they have to swim is crazy. At the hot springs, we checked in to our hotel, which looked like a cabin and had a little bench outside.
We then went to the hot springs, which we get in free with our stay there. It was expensive if you were not staying, and not sure it would be worth it. We enjoyed it a lot though. We changed into our suits and ran over in the rain to the hot springs. There was a huge pool too, but even in early July it was freezing. It was nice to have a full afternoon/evening to relax at this beautiful campground.
In the evening, between downpours of rain we ran over to the shared firepit and somehow my husband started a fire for our food. We mostly ate in the rain but were a little desperate because we didn’t have a microwave for all the food we bought and had nothing else to eat! We still laugh about this though – how funny our picture was in the rain and how much fun we had making hotdogs.
Day 15 – Sol Duc to Lake Crescent
First thing in the morning we headed out for a hike. We went to Sol Duc Falls and it was one of our favorite hikes of the trip. It was about a 1.6 mi hike and wasn’t very hard but was incredibly beautiful. The waterfall is huge, and the whole trail is really spectacular.
When we were done with that, we had a lot planned but by this point in the trip we were exhausted, didn’t want to drive anywhere and started making some calls on things to cancel so we could relax. We had considered driving straight to Hurricane Ridge and do the Hurricane Hill Hike, but 3.4 mi hike and 1.5hours of driving didn’t seem like a good idea. We are sad we missed it but really thankful for our nice relaxing evening. Like I mentioned – if you’re coming here just for Olympic National Park, doing all of these sections would be easy.
We drove to Lake Crescent which wasn’t far, and had considered doing Marymere falls and Spruce Nature trail but skipped both. We instead rented a double kayak – it was only $40 for 4 hours or something like that and we took turns. It was plenty of time and we had an awesome time on the lake. Then my husband and older son jumped into the lake and my younger son splashed around in the water. Our hotel room was really nice and had a little balcony. You could kind of see the lake from there. Again, the room was cheaper than others and we could just walk down to the lake. There were tons of places to sit and watch the view. The lake is one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen.
For dinner we had the problem we have had the last few nights where the food we had was microwave and we didn’t have a microwave. No fridge also, so needed to get ice for some stuff. We decided to make the kids sandwiches with leftovers we had from earlier, and then my husband got takeout from Granny’s just down the street and it was delicious. After dinner we roasted some more smores right by the lake.
Day 16 – Lake Crescent to Seattle
We got up early again and started our drive to Seattle. We wanted to make the first ferry over to Seattle and we were not totally sure what to expect with lines. We made it in time and got on the first one. I think we arrived about 30-60 minutes before it boarded. We got over to Seattle maybe around 11 or so.
We drove straight to Pike Place Market to walk around and spent probably 3 hours here. We ate way too much and had a great time. Some favorites were Beechers Mac and Cheese, Piroshki Piroshki, Daily Dozen, Rachels Ginger Beer and grabbed some fruit as well. I even bought some beautiful earrings!
Next up, drove around town for a few things to see. We stopped at Kerry Park for a beautiful view. Next we stopped at the Fremont Troll. Then – Gasworks park we spent a while there as well and had a great time at the park, good views of the city, saw some planes landing on the water.
Finally we had a few more stops planned, Amazon Go store which was closed, Starbucks Reserve which we walked in and then almost immediately walked out because it was expensive and our kids were annoying us, then did a quick stop at REI flagship store as well.
We wanted to make a few more stops but were kind of tired at this point. We were still full from lunch so couldn’t stop at a taco place for dinner like we planed, and ultimately just went to their airport where we took a red eye home into day 17 🙂