Touring Washington State: Olympic National Park, San Juan Islands, Seattle & Wineries

We were so ready to leave the coastal towns of Oregon and head into the mountains/forests of Washington. Lisa never thought she would have had enough of the ocean but the foggy coast was getting to us (Where is the sun?) so it was time to move on and meet Lisa’s cousin Scott in Washington.

We high-tailed it to Olympic National Park, well at least as fast as the RV could take us that is! The route was a tree-lined drive through the state, never have we seen so many lumbered forests and lumber trucks. And they book up those mountains, scary fast as they passed us every time! Once we made our camp at the John Wayne Marina/Campground in the town of Sequim a few miles from the border of Olympic National Park we waited for Scott to join us. Scott met up with us along with his friend Brian after taking the “long” way from Seattle (about a 4 hour detour, sucked to be them) We found the only restaurant open at 9pm in the sleepy town and celebrated that they finally made it! Scott and Brian were our first guests and we were excited to share our road trip with them.

In the AM we decided to take a “short” hike up to Hurricane Ridge within the park. The drive up the mountain was cloud covered and we were concerned that we would not even see the top of the mountain but once we got to the top we were literally above the clouds high up in the mountains. Little did we know that there would be so much snow along the roadway that we would have been better off wearing snowshoes instead of hiking shoes. To get to the start of the trail we had to walk on the roadway covered with snow. Take a look at this picture of Scott, Brian and Lisa. The snow was so deep that we are standing at the top of a sharp curve road sign, you can see a bit of the roadway peeking out in the bottom left hand corner of the pic below.



The “short” hike turned into a 6 mile hike with about 70% of hiking done on top of the melting snow. The views were amazing but the hike was a challenge for sure. We were all bet by the time we finally made it back to the Jeep. And of course the last ¼ mile was all up hill, seems to be the case every time we go hiking, as Troy says nothing is worth getting to unless you have to climb uphill.The next morning with Scott and Brian back in Seattle and us a “tad” sore from the hike the day before we decided to take it a bit easy and tour more of the park with the Jeep instead of by foot. We took the “Storm King” entrance into the park and explored Lake Crescent which was as flat as glass (see photo below) and Marymere Falls. The short 1 mile hike to the falls was truly beautiful as the area was so lush and green.


Next we headed on to Sol Duc Falls, a bit of a soggy hike but well worth it once we arrived at the falls.

To get anywhere was a long drive along the outskirts of the park but we were on a mission, Troy wanted to see the Hoh Rain Forest. As it turned out it was not worth the drive. The area had not seen rain in quite a while and the forest did not resemble much of the “rain” forest that we had been promised from the research we had done on the park, guess it wasn’t the right time of the year to visit. The area along the Strait of Juan was touted as a scenic drive so we decided to take the longer but “scenic” drive home, not very scenic as the Strait was mostly blocked by trees, wouldn’t recommend this boring long drive but at least we can say that we took the “scenic” route :)

Time for a new adventure, we took the RV on a ferry. Very cool that the RV could fit on a ferry, what a quick way to get to the city, anything to save on drive time we are a huge fan of! Once in the city we met up with Scott and headed to up to Anacortes and the San Juan Islands. We stayed at the Pioneer Trails RV Park outside of the city of Anacortes, such a cute place. The next day we took the Jeep on the Ferry to San Juan’s Orcas Island. After a 1 hour trip we arrived on the island and headed to Mount Constitution where we greeted with a 360 degree view of the islands, at least for about 5 minutes before the fog rolled in and we were lost in it. A sign off the main road indicated that a waterfall was a short hike and since Lisa wants to stop at everyone we passed, we stopped and did the "short", very up hill, hike.

We then had a quick lunch and rushed back to the ferry to make sure we were back to catch the Red Wings game at a local bar, we made it to watch the game but the wings lost that night.

Again we were on the road, this time headed to a “big” city, Seattle. (Chip, we finally made it to a "real", happy?) Since Seattle is not made for RV’s we stayed outside of the city in Issaquah, great little city with the Issaquah Brewery where Rogue Beer is served and they have the best Crab Melt, yummy! (We ate there twice while in town they were so good!) After lunch it was time for Scott to leave us so we drove him to the train station in town. Of course it was raining but we enjoyed the city of Seattle none the less.

We decided to tour the local wineries just outside of Seattle. Two of our favorites were Chateau Ste. Michelle and Januik/Novelty Hill. At Chateau Ste. Michelle we took a tour to refresh our memories on the wine making process. We loved their wine, especially their Riesling’s! That night we headed back to the Issaqauh Brewery and watched the Wings win the Stanley Cup!

Our final day in the Seattle area we explored Pike’s Peak Market and had lunch at Brooklyn. If you are in the city and like Oysters stop by for Happy Hour, they have the best specials! Of course it was raining again but we had a great time getting to know the city and hope to make it back when it isn’t raining, we heard August is a great time to visit.

Washington is a big state and we weren’t quite done with it yet. We headed to Yakima Valley Wine Region and had a great day of driving through the country and experiencing their different wines. A few of our favorites were Windy Point and Masset Winery. Good thing we were on our way out of wine countries, I don’t think the weight limit in the RV could handle us buying many more. :)