Olympic National Park

We just got back from our awesome trip to the Pacific Northwest to see Olympic National Park and Mt Rainier National Park.  I had originally planned this trip for last year before the world went crazy, but rescheduled for this summer instead.  It was a little ambitious to plan a trip that involved several hikes (usually up a mountain) per day with two little kids, but Harper and Ethan did great!  We had a ton of fun exploring nature, learning about different ecosystems and visiting an active volcano!  We celebrated Alex, Ethan and my birthdays on this trip.  My pictures just do not do the parks justice.  They were gorgeous!  It was the perfect family vacation!

     

We flew to Seattle, rented a car and rode a ferry across the Puget Sound to get to Olympic National Park.  We spent no time in Seattle, but it was fun to see it across the water.

     

   

     

     

    

    

   

After we made it to Bainbridge Island, we drove an hour and a half to Port Angeles to our first lodge.  Port Angeles is twenty minutes outside of Olympic National Park.

   

   

The lodge was cute!

  

Little man loves to travel this way.

   

Our view from the room was beautiful.

     

     

Our first hikes in Olympic National Park were on Hurricane Ridge.  It was a short drive up the mountain from our lodge.

   

We saw a ton of deer!

   

We loved our views above the clouds.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Ethan hates to ride in a hiking backpack.  He is also a painfully slow walker and can only go a few meters before getting tired (lazy?).  I bought a hip seat to carry him around with called TushBaby.  It was awesome!  We essentially got to snuggle the whole week!

   

Harper had received binoculars for her birthday.  They came in handy!!

   

   

   

   

   

   

Another deer!

   

  

   

   

   

Our next hike on Hurricane Ridge had beautiful wildflowers.  It was also straight up a mountain for nearly two miles.

   

Ethan slept the entire way up.

   

   

   

We were high enough to play in the snow!  Harper said her favorite part of our trip was the snow.

   

Lunch with a view!

  

   

  

We didn't know deer pooped like this.

   

   

   

   

   

We could see Canada across the water!

   

Our lodge had a heated pool and hot tub that the kids loved.

   

Dinner out in Port Angeles!  After over a year of not eating out, the kids behaved great, surprisingly!

    

We drove over to Lake Crescent the next day, which was Alex's birthday.

   

It was beautiful!

    

   

We canoed around the lake.

     

     

  

   

   

    

   

We saw a ton of huge trees on our hikes.

   

   

   

    

Log bridge!

  

Marymere Falls

   

Alex took a little tumble on the way down from the falls.

   

   

    

   

We had lunch at the Lake Crescent Lodge.

    

A lot of my pictures are blurry because the kids don't stop moving!

   

     

After lunch, the kids dipped their toes in the lake.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Harper took this picture! 

   

After our last Lake Crescent hike, we drove over to Sol Duc Hot Springs to hike Sol Duc Falls.  Can you spot Harper?

    

   

  

   

   

  

   

   

We stayed in Forks for a couple nights.  It was close to the beaches.

    

There was a cute patio next to our cabin with a fire pit.

  

     

All bandaged up!

  

The next day, we went to Rialto Beach to hike to Hole in the Wall.

   

I loved all the driftwood. 

   

   

   

     

   

   

     

We had to time this hike just right at low tide so that we: 1. Could actually see Hole in the Wall.  2.  Would not get trapped and die.  3. Could see the tidal pools in the rocks.  We found anemones, fish, snails and hermit crabs.  We had been paying attention to the NOAA tide tables prior to our trip.

     

     

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

   

Hole in the Wall!

  

  

   

We had lunch on the other side of the hole.

   

   

Alex and Harper spent a while searching for creatures in the tidal pools.

   

  

  

After Rialto Beach, we went over to First Beach.  It had more sand for sandcastles. 

   

   

   

   

  

We made it back to Forks for dinner.  The kids got a little dirty playing outside.

   

Water in their margarita glasses!

    

We went to Hoh Rainforest for a couple hikes the next morning.

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

We found a few slugs!

   

  

   

   

We were kinda obsessed with the trees.

   

   

   

   

Harper picked up this banana slug and was sticky the rest of the day.

   

  

  

   

  

  

Ruby Beach!

   

  

   

Harper found a snake.

   

  

   

   

The kids loved building towers of rocks.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

We stopped by Kalaloch Beach for lunch.

   

   

   

We had amazing lunch views this trip.

   

And a ton of great seafood!

   

   

After lunch, we drove down to Lake Quinault Lodge, our first official National Park lodge of the trip.

    

We had a great view of the lake.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

This is the largest spruce tree and is 1000 years old!

   

     

Our only hike at Lake Quinault was the Cascade Loop Trail and it was lovely!

     

  

   

   

More banana slugs!