We were up early today, left the campground and drove north up Highway 101. We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese and Ice Cream Factory for the self-guided tour, café, and gift shop. We discovered Tillamook ice cream on our last trip out west and when we realized we’d be driving through the town of Tillamook, we knew we had to stop. We checked out the self-guided tour, then went to the café where they were serving breakfast. All together, we tried the French toast, grilled cheese breakfast sandwich, and the farmer’s breakfast. It was all delicious. Then we browsed the shopping area and decided what we wanted to buy. We couldn’t decide on which ice cream to buy, so for brunch (literally less than 30 minutes after we finished breakfast) we went to the ice cream counter and we each tried one scoop of ice cream. We all ordered different flavors and sample each other’s, in hopes to decide on which gallon of ice cream to buy. It was all really a futile exercise, because we ended up buying a gallon of none of the flavors we sampled, but instead bought the flavor we tried two years ago: Mountain Huckleberry and Vanilla Bean. OMG – best ice cream ever (and I usually would never say such things about something that doesn’t contain chocolate). After eating our ice cream, we purchased, bagels, cream cheese, a few bricks of various flavors of cheese, a coffee mug, a Highway 101 Oregon sign to hang in the RV, and a gallon of ice cream.
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With all of our dairy needs taken care of, we were soon back on Highway 101 and crossing the Washington state line. We followed the coast until we reached our campground in Kalaloch. We didn’t go through a ranger station and there was no visitor center at this entrance of the park, so we just stopped at the campground entrance and noticed the ranger show in our campground was scheduled for 7:30 pm. We set up camp and saw the great views of the ocean from our campsite. I didn’t get the exact site I wanted, but it was still pretty good. We walked around some of the nearby loops of our campground and found the trail to the amphitheater where the ranger show would be. Near our site, there was a trail down to the beach, so we checked it out. At the bottom of the trail were hundreds of full size driftwood logs that had washed up onto the beach. We hunted around and picked up some smaller pieces for a campfire. We returned to our campsite and started a fire. We cooked pie-iron pizzas over the fire and ate that with fresh veggies from a vegetable tray.
(Click on any image in the gallery above to see scroll through the images full screen)
After dinner, we let the fire die down and we went to the ranger show. It was on the geology and rock formations of this area. It was hosted by an intern ranger who was spending the summer here. She was a student at the University of Virginia. Her show was pretty good and our kids were able to be volunteers. After the ranger show we came back to the RV and got ready for bed. I worked on the blog a little and we finished the movie that we started yesterday (With Honors). Knowing that we were going to do some walking on the beach and hiking some trails tomorrow, we turned in early. Tomorrow’s agenda includes a hike to the Kalaloch Lodge, an afternoon ranger show, a birthday lunch at the lodge, a hike along the beach, and a hike on the nature trail near our campground.
Day Fifteen –Olympic National Park, Washington
Today we all slept in until about 9:00 am! We ran the generator to make coffee and toast bagels. After breakfast we put our flip flops on and headed down to the beach. We were able to see lots of sea creatures washed up onto the beach including razor clams and lots of crabs. We walked along the edge of the surf and were surprised that the water was warmer here than it had been in Oregon. It was still a little chilly here, but tolerable and it didn’t make my feet numb. First we walked all the way through the campground to the farthest loop (D-Loop) so I could show everyone the site I really had wanted. Then we walked down to the beach and walked back to our site along the beach. We stopped and took lots of photos. When we returned, I found a flat spot in our campsite that looked over the ocean. My back was a little sore, so I did 10-15 minutes of yoga poses to stretch out my back and legs. It was really awesome to do it while watching and listening to the waves crashing.
After that, we cleaned up the motorhome a little. We sent the kids to take all of the aluminum cans to the recycling container and when they returned we had our son’s birthday present on the table for him. It was a quad-prop drone and he was thrilled. Of course, he can’t use it here in the parks because it’s prohibited, and also because it’s windy and you never want to use them near water . . . but he loved it all the same. He spent quite a while reading the instructions and setting it up while hubby and I cleaned the RV – swept floors, washed windows inside and out, etc.
After our chores were finished, we hiked up to the lodge. The trail wasn’t very thrilling, as most of it was along the highway – not cool. At one point, I swear the mirror of an RV was inches from my head. Anyway, we arrived at the lodge and we looked around and browsed the gift shop and camp store. We explored the cabin area and found the gazebo where the ranger talk would be. Near the gazebo were several lounge chairs to sit in and watch the ocean. As we were sitting there we kept seeing something bobbing up close to shore. At one point I thought it was a sea lion, but then as the ranger showed up, I saw the spray. It was a whale! Grey whales migrate up and down the coast here, and although it isn’t the season for them, the ranger said it was a gray whale for sure. It was rolling over and showing us a side fin, then we’d see the spray. You could easily see it from the shore with a naked eye – that’s how close to shore they come.
After watching the whale for a few minutes we listened to the ranger presentation about sea stars and their importance to the park. It was pretty interesting, and it was the same girl from the night before – the one from Virginia. She noticed my Shenandoah National Park shirt, and we talked about that for a few minutes before she continued her presentation. Sea stars are more interesting than you think – we learned a lot and I decided that we were getting up early and heading to a nearby beach that’s known for its tidepool activities. Low tide is just before 8am, so that means another early morning.
After the ranger talk, we went to the lodge for our son’s lunch dinner. We had a great lunch overlooking the ocean and he had a chocolate brownie and blackberry dessert. The waiter brought it to him with a lit candle and sang him “Happy Birthday.”
After lunch we hiked back to our campground along the beach instead of the road. I cleaned up the inside of the motorhome a bit to get ready for travel again. I also swept off our patio mat and updated some of the dates on it (it’s a map of the US and each time we visit a new state, we mark the date on it with Sharpie markers). We packed up the mat so it would be one less thing to do in the morning. After packing up the mat, hubby and I sat outside to enjoy our ocean view one last time before we pack up the chairs. I’m working on writing this while I sit here. The ocean waves are crashing so loud – it’s wonderful.
We decided to take our final hike here in Kalaloch campground on the Nature Trail. We had heard you could see otters in the river on this trail. On our way to the trail, we saw an older woman with a teeny-tiny stainless steel-sided tear drop camping trailer with red and white-wall tires. I told her I liked her trailer and she replied that it was built from a kit in 1946. She and her husband had had it for 20 or 30 years.
The Nature Trail originated in our campground and it was easy to find. I think it was a mile or just over a mile, round trip – so nothing major. It was a beautiful trail that crossed Highway 101. It was like being in an enchanted forest with mosses and ferns growing everywhere. Unfortunately, at the end of the trail, there was a small river with a little bit of an overlook, but no otters. We hiked back to our campsite and discussed dinner. No one was that hungry after the big lunch we had, so we just grabbed little snacks while we played Euchre. Hubby and daughter won this time – 10 to 7.
After the card game, we started getting the RV road-ready again. We sent the kids to drop off trash, while we put chairs and other things away. We all took showers, and since it was so cold here, we ran the generator a bit so that I could dry my hair before going to bed. If I go to bed with wet hair, I wake up freezing. With all of our showers complete, the kids are now in bed and I’m writing again. I’m going to put in the dinette slide, so that all we will have to do in the morning is put the rear bed slide in, put the stabilizers up, and drive off the leveling blocks. Then we’ll be off to Ruby Beach and the tidepools, and the Hoh Rain Forest. We’ll do a little hiking and then head to the ferry that will take us into Seattle. Good night!
Statistics – we did 6.5 miles of hiking today – some of it along the beach and some in the forest.
