Exploring the Olympic peninsula

“To walk in nature is always good medicine.” Sam Gribley, On the Far Side of the Mountain

During our family read-aloud time last night, this quote jumped off the page at me and perfectly sums up our recent trip to northwest Washington state. 

This month was the first time ever that the Mr. and I chose to take a full, two-week vacation time. We’re late to the party I know, but better late than never; I highly recommend it if you can pull it off. In almost 18 years of marriage, we’ve only ever afforded ourselves a long weekend here and there, or once, a full week. But that has always left us feeling as if we needed a vacation to recover from our vacation. And there’s just something about the pandemic that has had us reprioritizing rest and play and quality family time. A full two weeks was just right, especially since we spent most of that time outdoors.

We had initially planned a camping trip to Bend, Oregon, but with fire season leaving central Oregon too smoky for our comfort level, we decided to err on the side of caution and explore the Olympic Peninsula instead. I’ve wanted to visit the area for more than a decade, ever since my best friend coerced me to watch the newly premiered Twilight movie. (While everyone was falling in love with Edward and Jacob, I fell in love with the Olympic National Forest). I’m so glad we changed our plans; Washington is even more beautiful in person!

These duffel bags from Walker Family Goods made packing for our trip so simple and easy.

From paddleboarding on Lake Crescent to hiking up the trail to Marymere Falls to watching orcas breaching the waves of the Puget Sound, we packed as much as we could into our week of exploring Washington. (After the peninsula, we spent a couple of days visiting Baker National Forest and Anacortes, but I’ll save that for another post.)

We started the trip with a drive up Highway 101 to Port Angeles, where we camped at an outlying KOA campground. While I was anxious that our tent site might be invaded by a bear or cougar, I didn’t think to beware the stray Highland calf that broke free from its nearby pasture and ran through the campground. Fortunately, that was the only wildlife that visited our site, but unpredictable rain patterns once again threw off our plans, delaying our trip a day (if you weren’t here for the last rainy camping experience, read about it here), and then causing us to transfer our things to a small onsite cabin for the last night so we wouldn’t be packing up camp the next day in a rain shower.

Check out the view of Olympic National Forest from our campsite outside Port Angeles. Also, typical sun-in-the-eyes photo taken by yours truly.

The day after we arrived at Port Angeles, we took a scenic drive along the coastal 101 that runs along the northern border of the peninsula, parallel to Vancouver Island, B.C. (We got so close to the border that we received text messages welcoming us to Canada.) We had to turn around at the Makah reservation, which was closed to the public due to COVID, so we drove through the Olympic National Forest to Forks, where I took pictures of all the Twilight memorabilia I could for my best friend back in Alabama.

After our second night of camping/glamping, we transferred our things to a nearby harbor-side hotel in Port Angeles so we could get some real sleep before moving on from the area, and so we would have hot showers after a day on Lake Crescent. The only local gem we found in Port Angeles was the Blackbird Café, where we had lunch after we said goodbye to the campground Wednesday and drove down the foggy, tree-lined Highway 101 until Lake Crescent greeted us out our window. (If you’re ever in Port Angeles, stop by the Blackbird and grab a gluten-free lemon vanilla cupcake and a latte. You’re welcome.)

Lake Crescent Lodge is a great place to spend the day. There is an upscale restaurant and lodging, but it’s also open for day use and provides multiple hiking trails and plenty of open shoreline for wading, swimming, lounging, or even putting in paddleboards or a kayak. We chose the almost 2-mile trail loop to Marymere Falls and back, traipsing through the forest and over handmade bridges and stairs up to the waterfall. This was such a beautiful hike with plenty of wide, flat trails to make it doable for kids. After the hike, we woofed down granola bars and then shimmied into swimsuits in our darkly tented SUV and headed to the lake to paddleboard. Lake Crescent is a glacier lake, and the water is so clear and blue. There are plenty of areas around the 11-or-so-mile perimeter to explore by water, and we took our time taking it all in.

The next day, we left the hotel early to head to Port Townsend and board a whale watching boat. We purchased tickets for the Puget Sound Express, and since the kids have been learning about all about wildlife and indigenous tribes of the Olympic peninsula, our charter school (which serves as a cover for homeschoolers) reimbursed us for them as a field trip. Our tour was four hours of boating in the Puget Sound, and we passed by several harbor seals and observed two different pods of orcas. Seeing the giant dorsal fins emerge from the water and draw a crescent in the air before descending again in a buttery smooth, synchronized motion was surreal!

The crew aboard the Puget Sound Express was phenomenal. They were incredibly friendly and knowledgable, and the kids loved hearing about the different orca families the crew identified and how they recognize the orcas by specific markings. They also bake a mean blueberry buckle aboard the ship, which makes the entire cabin smell delicious—not at all what you’d expect on a whaling boat.

After our tour, we lingered in Port Townsend for lunch at the Silverwater Café (gluten-free shrimp scampi for me, Pacific cod fish and chips for the Mr., and burgers for the kids; everything was delicious!) and hand-dipped ice cream at Elevated Ice Cream Co. along the waterfront. Port Townsend is just adorable—historic buildings line the street and offer eclectic, unique shops that are perfect for hours of aimless browsing.

Perhaps my favorite part of Port Townsend, however, was the one place photography wasn’t allowed: Forest Gems Gallery on Washington Street. Before and during our trip, we had been reading as a family Written in Stone by Rosanne Parry, a book about a Native American girl named Pearl, part of the Quinault tribe, who longed to be a whaler like her father. We read in detail about the abalone shell button she kept from her mother’s blanket, her father’s raven regalia, and all about the areas her tribe traveled on the peninsula and the nearby tribes they visited. We read about potlatches and ceremonial elements, and Forest Gems Gallery curates a collection of many of the indigenous tribal pieces we’d read about. You can feel the somber atmosphere where the actual hand-carved, sacred ceremonial masks that the book describes are on display. I pointed out the abalone shell embellishments on the artwork just like we’d read about. We browsed the collection of carved wooden animals and identified ravens and eagles and bears. It brought not only the book but also First Nations tribal culture to life for our family and was a learning experience we won’t forget.