Taking Advantage of a Beautiful Day Off

I woke up this cold, November day, and I couldn't believe my eyes: It was Sunny. It was not only sunny, but it was my day off too! A sunny day off in November!!! What a treat!!

 

Did I mention it was cold! There was snow like frost on the roof across the street!

After a cup of coffee, some delicious leftover Thanksgiving stuffing and eggs, off we went! Just Milli and me - we were on our way to the Olympic Peninsula. The goal was to hike. I put two destination on our agenda - we were gonna visit the Dungeness Spit and Railroad Bridge Park.

Since Chad and I moved up here, people have been telling us to visit the Dungeness Spit. Its the longest naturally occurring Spit in the US at 5 miles long. I read on one of the interpretive signs that the spit is actually growing around 19 inches a year. At the end of the five mile long hike, over rocks and drift wood and birds nests, there is a lighthouse.

There is the slightest white dot in between the two pointy foreground trees... thats the lighthouse...

 

I didn't actually walk the 10 mile round trip spit... we drove along the coast to see most of it. Luckily, I had read before we left that since the Spit is a wildlife refuge, dogs are not allowed to hike on it. I figured Milli and I would just pull over somewhere and have a walk - what I didn't expect was that JUST as you turn into the Dungeness Spit property, there is a hunting ground.... and along that hunting ground there is a trail - a DOG FRIENDLY trail! A beautiful trail that travels along the beach for most of it, and allows you glimpses of the spit and its surrounding campsites and what not. The trail actually takes you straight to the entrance to the Spit trail (where we had to turn around). It was the perfect 3 miles hike.

 The first half of the dog friendly trail - it was so pretty.

The second half... along the water with the spit in the background.

 

Once we got back to the car, Milli passed out, so I drove around, back to the Spit trail entrance. Leaving Milli in the car (which I think she was totally grateful for) I walked down to the beach/Spit. Just to warn you - there is a $4 entrance fee - totally honor system and the money covers four adults. Once I got down there, I realized I had no umph whatsoever to actually walk ANY distance on the Spit itself, but I took a few pictures and walked along the beach a bit. It was amazing. The wind was blowing, it was cold but not TOO cold, it was beautiful.

The beginning of the Spit. aka, as far as I walked down it...

After my little hike, we got back on the road and went to the Railroad Bridge Park. This place was cool. The park is centered around an old railroad bridge (duh) - that was built long ago to allow trains to cross the Dungeness River for a railway between Port Townsend and Port Angeles.

The park is small and it includes the Dungeness River Audubon Center, a small picnic area and a mile or so long trail. The old bridge is beautiful. The river below is even prettier. Luckily, the hike was short cause Milli and I were tired.

 Dungeness River

Milli and I finished the day up with a cup of coffee (for me, water for her) and a nice drive home.

Looks like the perfect end to a perfect day, to me :)

 

There wasn't a drip of rain. There was no traffic. Almost no people at either place. The day was wonderful. It was the perfect day off.

Collins Campground

Let me just start this off with - Holy goodness Collins Campground is by far the coolest place in the world.

So, last weekend, Chad and I finally got the opportunity to go camping in Washington. The whole trip was a little haphazardly planned - so we hadn't made a reservation anywhere or had a specific plan in mind. Luckily, Chad had randomly been given that Friday off and with a little help from a friend, I had found a couple first-come-first-serve campsites.

We hit the jackpot. The first place Chad went, he got a spot (the last spot, the best spot). It was in the Collins Campground and it was at the joining of Collin's Creek and the Duckabush River. Literally, creek to the left and river at the front. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Duckabush River

Collins Creek 

Easy to get to, take the 101 south on the Olympic Peninsula to Duckabush River Road, drive about 5 miles and you're there. Once you get there, pick one of the 14 spots (just drive up to an empty one) and its $14 a night ($5 extra for each car over 2). Bring cash (small bills so you have exact change) or a check. There are two vault toilets - very well maintained - and a picnic table and fire pit with grill at each spot. Dogs are ok. The place totally clears out on Sunday morning, so if you can, do a mid-week trip and you'd have the whole place to yourself.

The river was COLD! Which didn't stop Chad and our friend from going in and submerging themselves! Didn't keep our friend's dogs out either (Milli however kept her sweet distance). I got in to about my thighs at one point... the current wasn't too strong along the shore, but it was too cold for me.

Another great feature was the waterfall. It wasn't at our camp, but about 2 miles drive farther up Duckabush River Road, then a mile hike. It was wonderful! The hike was nice, a bit of hill, but well maintained, huckleberries EVERYWHERE (Little Man K and I munched on those the whole way up)! The trail ends at Marhut Falls. A beautiful waterfall with a pool of calm-ish water at its base. The lookout point is high, about halfway down the falls, but you can walk down to the falls... or climb down.

I couldn't have begged for a better first camping spot in Washington. I would literally fly across the country to camp here each year! Enjoy!!

Olympic Game Farm

Last week Chad and I spent the most beautiful 5th of July together. We decided to fulfill a Washington-Long-Dream and go to the Olympic Game Farm.

Short story, it will be jumbled and partially wrong, but the Olympic Game Farm is a place where, back in the day, Disney stored, trained and filmed many of its animals and their scenes. Their most famous filming was the Grizzly Adams show. At some point they asked Disney to let them open to the public. There is a driving tour of the grounds, a walking tour and a barn tour. The driving tour is awesome cause they sell you loaves of bread and you can feed the animals who walk right up to your car!

It was great! We had so much fun. Feeding creatures wheat bread. Petting sheeps. Looking at four foot long fish.

 The bears were really smart. They would wave when you waved! Then when you threw the bread at them the were too lazy to bend down... so they would pick it up with their claw and bring it to their mouth.

This chicken came careening out of nowhere! to get a piece of bread!

It was all great fun until a llama tried to crawl into my window. Chad thought that was great, I thought otherwise.

It was a glorious, mellow day. I highly recommend it for people who are already planning on being in Sequim for the day. We had planned to spend a half a day there, but even after we looped part of the drive tour twice and took the barn tour (and petted the sheeps), we only used up 1.5 hours of our day.

So go! Have fun! Feed creatures! And watch out for the buffalo!

Olympic Wow-insula!

There have been some crazy things going on in our lives recently - possibly moving sooner than we thought, me changing jobs, finishing up the school quarter... So, we decided to take a quick break - just 48 hours, and do something we've been talking about doing since we moved up here - visiting the sights of the Olympic Peninsula.

The goal was to beeline it to the Hoh Rainforest... but Lake Crescent was too tempting

 It's the bluest lake I've ever seen! The water was soooo clear!

Only a few minutes later, back to driving to the Hoh Rainforest - a 3.5 hour drive from Silverdale - and yet an entire world away.

 Every tree was covered by moss, lichens and ferns.

 Walking along the 'Hall of Mosses'

Quick lunch by the Hoh River

Then we headed to Forks, to check into our motel - no, it wasn't Twilight themed (though it could've been).

Then, because a friend of mine said, we absolutely had to, we drove out to La Push, to see a real Washington coast line.

 I'd never seen islands like this, dotting a rather rugged coast.

The weather had turned rather ugly...

Back to Forks (For a beer of course).

The next morning we headed out to Cape Flattery.... epic fail... we should've brought the Jeep. We'll see the most western corner of the contiguous US next time... Luckily, we had made a stop at a random beach along the Juan de Fuca Strait - perfect way to start a day!

 There were tide pools and so many crabs that you could hear the 'chatter' of them scurrying around when you got too close.

As much as we like to pretend the Colbalt is an off-road vehicle.... its not....

Next, was Sol Duc. The plan was to first hike to Sol Duc Falls, then relax in the hot springs.... but... the 1000 little screaming kids turned us off to that idea. So, just the hike - the falls totally made up for the kids!

Then, we made an unexpected, re-stop at Lake Crescent, to hike up to Marymere Falls.

And, in a nutshell of course, that was our trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Next time we will stay longer and add a night or two of camping. Also, we're gonna try again for Cape Flattery, along with Hurricane Ridge and the Dungeness Spit. There is so much the OP has to offer! And we can't wait to go back!!