Olympic National Park: Exploring Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent (202)

Our next stop was in the state of Washington. We made our way to Bothell and the Lake Pleasant RV Resort. We’ve stayed here many times and it’s a good base camp to visit the Seattle, which we’ve done many times. This time, we focused on enjoying our time with family, which included many great bike rides along the Samamish River Trail, finding the best fish and chips in the area, visiting their church, enjoying the Everett Marina, and just relaxing and doing nothing.

However, this year we also planned to venture a little further west to the Olympic National Park! Our plan was to cross the Puget Sound on a ferry, then visit Sequim on the way to the National Park where we would visit Hurricane Ridge and Lake Cresent. On the way home, we also planned to stop by Port Townsend before taking the ferry back to Bothell. It was a lot to pack into 3 days!

I’ve drawn our route on the map from Bothell (we’ll talk about the route from Gig Harbor in the next post!).

The weather was overcast as we drove to Sequim, however, the lavenders fields at B&B Family Lavender Farm were in bloom…

…and we enjoyed wandering the fields and shopping for all things lavender at the stands. We stopped at the Oak Table Cafe for their excellent quiche, and then traveled on to Port Angeles.

Our first stop was to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center. It usually pays off to do this. We thought it was too overcast to make it worth driving up to Hurricane Ridge. However, the Ranger looked at a cam setup on the ridge and said if we left right away we’d have a great view.

So we were off to Hurricane Ridge! But the ride up the mountain was really foggy! In fact, most drivers turned on their hazard lights to others see them.

About two-thirds of the way up, we rose above the fog and had a gorgeous view of the ridge! In fact, it’s almost like the hills were alive with the sound of music! 🙂

A herd of deer were grazing in the lush fields of grass. They seemed pretty contented.

We walked the trails in the area and loved all the incredible views. The mountain seemed to say “right back at ya” when we saw this snow field in the shape of a heart.

Unfortunately, the trip down the mountain was in the dark and the fog (or clouds) was worse than ever. We just took it slow with our hazard lights blinking and made it safely down the mountain and to our hotel.

We stayed at the Olympic Lodge in Port Angeles (not part of the National Park). It was a very nice hotel, and a great place to relax after a day of sight seeing and hiking. Their breakfast each morning was well done and got us off to a good start each day.

The next day we explored Lake Crescent. We stopped by here a few years ago and I fell in love with the place.

Lake Crescent, carved by glaciers and formed during a great landslide, is the second deepest lake in the state (after Lake Chelan) at 600 feet. I love the deep blue color of the lake, wrapped in green by the surrounding hills.

It’s the perfect setting for the Lake Crescent Lodge. It was built in 1915, before the road, so construction material was delivered by barge.

Upon entering, you can’t miss the large stone fireplace with a trophy mounted above. Even in the winter it must be cozy with a fire blazing.

A restaurant was also part of the original lodge and its still serving guests. We enjoyed a fish sandwich with local salmon prepared onsite. It was one of the best meals of the trip.

After lunch we took a beautiful hike in the moss-covered forest to Marymere Falls. The trail into the forest was a good contrast to the blue lakeside setting of the lodge,

and we enjoyed walking past trees with mushrooms growing like stairs on the trunk, and the filtered light dancing on the branches below.

It made you feel you were much further in the forest than you really were. Marymere Fall was beautiful, with water falling 90 feet from the cliff above. I also loved the wall of ferns next to the fall.

On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed walking around the Port Angeles waterfront. From here, you can take a ferry to Victoria Harbor, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Canada. We’ll have to do that next time!

The next day, we drove back to Bothell, but made a detour to Port Townsend. It has a beautiful downtown with many Victorian buildings dating back to the 1800’s.

We enjoyed walking the downtown and waterfront,

and found a really good, though crowded, place to enjoy coffee (Better Living Through Coffee) before the rest of the ride back to the Big Blue Box.

During a long RV trip, taking a few days away from the RV can be very refreshing and set the tone for the rest of the trip. Last year we took a few days to visit the Paradise Inn on Mount Ranier. This year we went the other direction to the Olympic National Park. Next year, who knows?

After almost 2 weeks, we finished our time in the Seattle area and drove back through Olympia, over the Tacoma Narrows, and to Gig Harbor for a few days. I’ll look forward to writing about that trip in our next post.

Al & Deb