Pacific Northwest Trip Report
Sep 16th, 2005, 06:53 AM
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Pacific Northwest Trip Report
Pacific Northwest Trip Report
Hello everyone. Here is my very 1st trip report ever. Sorry it’s a little longer than some. But I know I personally enjoy all the great details posted on other trip reports. Hope you enjoy the photos.
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/211399/index.html
Thursday 7/28 we flew out of Ft. Myers to Seattle on Delta. The flight went well, no problems. Arrived in Seattle a little after noon. You could see Mt. Rainier from miles away and so the first place we went to was Kerry Park. I had some great photos from last year of the downtown Seattle skyline with the Space Needle in the middle, but without Mt. Rainier. Well this time we were finally able to get a great shot with Rainier included.
Friday 7/29 went to Anacortes for a 4pm whale watching tour with Island Adventures. We used them last year for the 1st time and had such a great time that we decided to go with them again. It was a blast! We saw a Grey whale along with all the Orcas from the 3 pods. They were kind of scattered around but some were breaching off in the distance and one breached close to the boat.
You never know what you will get to see during a whale tour. I was in Seattle back in 98 and went on my first whale tour and they were incredibly active that day. The second time was last year and we saw them more in their resting mode. We saw some really good views of Mt. Baker from the boat. Will continue to use Island Adventures, every time we visit. It was a nice way to spend my birthday.
Saturday 7/30 we ended up down by the Everett Marina area and decided to eat lunch at Anthony’s Seafood. It was a pretty good lunch.
After lunch we took Gardyloo’s recommendation for the scenic route to Snoqualmie Falls. We also stopped at a u-pick raspberry farm and picked some berries right outside of a little town called Carnation. The berries were delish and only 85 cents a pound. I hadn’t ever picked berries before (except blackberries in the wild) and it was a lot of fun! They were huge, I actually thought they were strawberries when we first approached they were so big.
Snoqualmie Falls was just beautiful. I had been warned that the flow wouldn’t be very good however we were very impressed. We took the hike down and crawled down off the boardwalk and meandered around the rocks for a better view. It was very hot that day and the mist from the falls felt very good. When it came time to hike back up, we noticed the small parking lot off to the side near the bottom of the trail. The girls and I waited for hubby to hike back up and find that parking lot and pick us up.
The trail is steep and we were tired. (We are used to flat Florida) I could have kicked myself later on when I realized, I had printed out some other trip reports and articles that I had meant to read on the plane but didn’t. Well they mentioned the second parking area, which would have saved us the hike down.
Sunday 7/31 we were up early and off to Rainier. We made it to Paradise and Sunrise. Both were just really beautiful. We stopped at Christine falls for some photo ops and then hung out for a while at Reflection Lakes. When we got to Sunrise, there were a lot of people but we had no trouble finding a place to park. We took a short hike down a trail and got some awesome photos of the mountain. When we left, it took exactly 3 hours to get to my friends house in Everett. That would be from the Sunrise visitor Center to Everett. It was a long day but worth it. When we got home we packed up the van for the early morning trip to the ONP.
Monday 8/1 we were up early again with not a lot of sleep. That’s what we get for packing a lot into the trip but it was so worth it. It was raining this morning. The only time it rained the whole trip. We made it to the Edmonds/Kingston ferry and had a very smooth trip across. You couldn’t even feel the boat leaving the dock. We had plans to drive up to Hurricane Ridge and stop for some photos. With it raining and overcast out, I almost didn’t want to go up to Hurricane Ridge; I figured we could hit it on the way back. However by the time we got there and drove up, it was a beautiful day and you could see for miles around. It took up approx. 40 minutes to drive all the way up and it was 54 degrees at the top and felt wonderful.
We also took the Dungeness scenic loop drive. We ended up somehow at a restaurant parking lot called the Three Crabs and there were a lot of people with binoculars checking out birds. I believe they were geese. We stopped and stretched our legs and took a few photos.
We also stopped in Port Angeles and ate lunch at the subway right across from a grocery store. We finished picking up whatever else we needed for our trip at the store and off we went. We turned at the Sol Duc Springs exit and was going to hike to see the falls, however when you turn off 101 there was a sign that said 17 miles to the place, so we decided to save that for the trip home. We were anxious to get to the cabin and still had a ways to go.
Was excited to come to our exit for La Push and it was still a ways away. But, when you round the bend past the signs for 2nd beach you are struck with a view that was to die for. It was absolutely breath taking.
Loved the cabin. The view was incredible.
Couldn’t believe all of the rocks or pebbles on the beach so many different shapes, sizes and colors. We probably brought back about 75 lbs of rocks. We built a fire every night and roasted hot dogs. Best hot dogs ever.
Tuesday 8/2 was my daughter’s birthday. I had made brownies the night before and brought some candles and did a simple little celebration. We gave her a digital camera for her birthday and she was excited to start taking pictures.
We headed to the Hoh Rainforest. We bought some bug spray in the visitor center because the bugs were really bad that day. We did the Hall of Mosses trailhead and then decided to head to Ruby Beach. The drive from the Hoh to Ruby took approx. 30 minutes. We stayed over 2 hours.
I can’t find the right words to describe this beach. It was breathtaking, surreal, enchanting, mesmerizing and so on, as we arrived to Ruby Beach a huge blanket of fog had just rolled in. It was very thick at the top and we weren’t sure what to expect at the bottom so we started down the trailhead and to our surprise the trail was full of slugs. We kept seeing so many slugs, big Banana slugs. The girls were so excited to spot the slugs. Me too. We actually counted over 30 on the way back up. And there were a ton of them at the top around the wooded little fence posts. We reached the bottom of the trail and we could see outlines of the sea stacks through the fog. This beach was unbelievable. We poked around the tide pools for quite a while and I still cant get over the beauty of this beach. The fog finally lifted away and we were able to capture some beautiful images.
Wednesday 8/3 we headed to Second Beach in the early morning. The workers in the office said that this beach was the best for tide pools. I agree. This place had so many starfish and anemones. The starfish were a beautiful orange and purple color and they were everywhere. Some were piled on each other. Some were by themselves. We took so many photos. This was an absolutely stunning place. Our favorite beach by far.
We headed to Rialto Beach for the evening low tide. I didn’t see any rock formations close by. They were all down the beach a good little ways. So we started hiking along the beach not realizing that we were headed to the Hole in the Wall. I mile and a half isn’t that long of a way but the beach was horrible for walking on. You sunk down in the sand with every step or were going over plain gray rocks. Neither was easy for walking. We finally got to the Hole in the wall and it was pretty. We passed through the cave opening and went to the other side to photograph it. Well my mind is made up. We all were much more impressed with Ruby Beach than Rialto Beach. I guess it all depends on what your individual tastes are. We loved Second Beach the most then Ruby Beach.
Thursday 8/4 we hit Second Beach again for the low tide and spent a couple of hours there. Then packed up the vehicle and checked out. The original plan was to hit Sol Duc Falls on the way back. BUT…As we passed the signs for the NW most point Cape Flattery exit, we decided to stray from our itinerary and head that way first and hit Sol Duck on the way back.
Well we didn’t know what to expect about the NW most point. But I did think it would have something like Key West does for the Southern most point another photo opportunity. The drive there was pretty looking out over the Strait of Juan De Fuca and being able to see Canada and all but when we got to the very end past the Makah Reservation and realized we had to hike to get to the point, we stopped and started back. That is what we get for not researching this part of the trip. It took a little over an hour to get there and another hour to get back. Oh well.
We made it to the Sol Duc area and took a hike up the trail. WOW!!!! I have seen some beautiful falls before in Maui, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington however I was really impressed with the beauty of Sol Duc Falls. We loved it. It was stunning. The 3 falls are great but so is the scenery surrounding it. The girls and I didn’t stay down there to long, but hubby did until the lighting was better. We just waited for him in the van.
Then we began the long journey back to Everett. We made it to the ferry at Kingston for the 11:10PM crossing and I cant remember what time we got to the house.
Friday 8/5 we rested, packed and hung out.
Saturday 8/6 we departed for the flight back.
We had an awesome trip. We loved the wild Washington Coast and cant wait to come back. The cabin was fabulous. Everything turned out more wonderful than we could have imagined.
My hubby, daughter and I all like to take photos and so we all 3 had our own camera. Between the 2 of us (hubby and I) we took over 2700 digital photos. We parted ways and went on our own during the beach combings so I had no idea what he took photos of and vice versa so we did end up with some similar photos but that’s ok. I apologize for not posting this trip report sooner but it was a ton of photos to weed through and then post to the website. Thank you to everyone who posts about this area, we planned the majority of this trip from the postings I look at almost daily.
Hello everyone. Here is my very 1st trip report ever. Sorry it’s a little longer than some. But I know I personally enjoy all the great details posted on other trip reports. Hope you enjoy the photos.
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/211399/index.html
Thursday 7/28 we flew out of Ft. Myers to Seattle on Delta. The flight went well, no problems. Arrived in Seattle a little after noon. You could see Mt. Rainier from miles away and so the first place we went to was Kerry Park. I had some great photos from last year of the downtown Seattle skyline with the Space Needle in the middle, but without Mt. Rainier. Well this time we were finally able to get a great shot with Rainier included.
Friday 7/29 went to Anacortes for a 4pm whale watching tour with Island Adventures. We used them last year for the 1st time and had such a great time that we decided to go with them again. It was a blast! We saw a Grey whale along with all the Orcas from the 3 pods. They were kind of scattered around but some were breaching off in the distance and one breached close to the boat.
You never know what you will get to see during a whale tour. I was in Seattle back in 98 and went on my first whale tour and they were incredibly active that day. The second time was last year and we saw them more in their resting mode. We saw some really good views of Mt. Baker from the boat. Will continue to use Island Adventures, every time we visit. It was a nice way to spend my birthday.
Saturday 7/30 we ended up down by the Everett Marina area and decided to eat lunch at Anthony’s Seafood. It was a pretty good lunch.
After lunch we took Gardyloo’s recommendation for the scenic route to Snoqualmie Falls. We also stopped at a u-pick raspberry farm and picked some berries right outside of a little town called Carnation. The berries were delish and only 85 cents a pound. I hadn’t ever picked berries before (except blackberries in the wild) and it was a lot of fun! They were huge, I actually thought they were strawberries when we first approached they were so big.
Snoqualmie Falls was just beautiful. I had been warned that the flow wouldn’t be very good however we were very impressed. We took the hike down and crawled down off the boardwalk and meandered around the rocks for a better view. It was very hot that day and the mist from the falls felt very good. When it came time to hike back up, we noticed the small parking lot off to the side near the bottom of the trail. The girls and I waited for hubby to hike back up and find that parking lot and pick us up.
The trail is steep and we were tired. (We are used to flat Florida) I could have kicked myself later on when I realized, I had printed out some other trip reports and articles that I had meant to read on the plane but didn’t. Well they mentioned the second parking area, which would have saved us the hike down.
Sunday 7/31 we were up early and off to Rainier. We made it to Paradise and Sunrise. Both were just really beautiful. We stopped at Christine falls for some photo ops and then hung out for a while at Reflection Lakes. When we got to Sunrise, there were a lot of people but we had no trouble finding a place to park. We took a short hike down a trail and got some awesome photos of the mountain. When we left, it took exactly 3 hours to get to my friends house in Everett. That would be from the Sunrise visitor Center to Everett. It was a long day but worth it. When we got home we packed up the van for the early morning trip to the ONP.
Monday 8/1 we were up early again with not a lot of sleep. That’s what we get for packing a lot into the trip but it was so worth it. It was raining this morning. The only time it rained the whole trip. We made it to the Edmonds/Kingston ferry and had a very smooth trip across. You couldn’t even feel the boat leaving the dock. We had plans to drive up to Hurricane Ridge and stop for some photos. With it raining and overcast out, I almost didn’t want to go up to Hurricane Ridge; I figured we could hit it on the way back. However by the time we got there and drove up, it was a beautiful day and you could see for miles around. It took up approx. 40 minutes to drive all the way up and it was 54 degrees at the top and felt wonderful.
We also took the Dungeness scenic loop drive. We ended up somehow at a restaurant parking lot called the Three Crabs and there were a lot of people with binoculars checking out birds. I believe they were geese. We stopped and stretched our legs and took a few photos.
We also stopped in Port Angeles and ate lunch at the subway right across from a grocery store. We finished picking up whatever else we needed for our trip at the store and off we went. We turned at the Sol Duc Springs exit and was going to hike to see the falls, however when you turn off 101 there was a sign that said 17 miles to the place, so we decided to save that for the trip home. We were anxious to get to the cabin and still had a ways to go.
Was excited to come to our exit for La Push and it was still a ways away. But, when you round the bend past the signs for 2nd beach you are struck with a view that was to die for. It was absolutely breath taking.
Loved the cabin. The view was incredible.
Couldn’t believe all of the rocks or pebbles on the beach so many different shapes, sizes and colors. We probably brought back about 75 lbs of rocks. We built a fire every night and roasted hot dogs. Best hot dogs ever.
Tuesday 8/2 was my daughter’s birthday. I had made brownies the night before and brought some candles and did a simple little celebration. We gave her a digital camera for her birthday and she was excited to start taking pictures.
We headed to the Hoh Rainforest. We bought some bug spray in the visitor center because the bugs were really bad that day. We did the Hall of Mosses trailhead and then decided to head to Ruby Beach. The drive from the Hoh to Ruby took approx. 30 minutes. We stayed over 2 hours.
I can’t find the right words to describe this beach. It was breathtaking, surreal, enchanting, mesmerizing and so on, as we arrived to Ruby Beach a huge blanket of fog had just rolled in. It was very thick at the top and we weren’t sure what to expect at the bottom so we started down the trailhead and to our surprise the trail was full of slugs. We kept seeing so many slugs, big Banana slugs. The girls were so excited to spot the slugs. Me too. We actually counted over 30 on the way back up. And there were a ton of them at the top around the wooded little fence posts. We reached the bottom of the trail and we could see outlines of the sea stacks through the fog. This beach was unbelievable. We poked around the tide pools for quite a while and I still cant get over the beauty of this beach. The fog finally lifted away and we were able to capture some beautiful images.
Wednesday 8/3 we headed to Second Beach in the early morning. The workers in the office said that this beach was the best for tide pools. I agree. This place had so many starfish and anemones. The starfish were a beautiful orange and purple color and they were everywhere. Some were piled on each other. Some were by themselves. We took so many photos. This was an absolutely stunning place. Our favorite beach by far.
We headed to Rialto Beach for the evening low tide. I didn’t see any rock formations close by. They were all down the beach a good little ways. So we started hiking along the beach not realizing that we were headed to the Hole in the Wall. I mile and a half isn’t that long of a way but the beach was horrible for walking on. You sunk down in the sand with every step or were going over plain gray rocks. Neither was easy for walking. We finally got to the Hole in the wall and it was pretty. We passed through the cave opening and went to the other side to photograph it. Well my mind is made up. We all were much more impressed with Ruby Beach than Rialto Beach. I guess it all depends on what your individual tastes are. We loved Second Beach the most then Ruby Beach.
Thursday 8/4 we hit Second Beach again for the low tide and spent a couple of hours there. Then packed up the vehicle and checked out. The original plan was to hit Sol Duc Falls on the way back. BUT…As we passed the signs for the NW most point Cape Flattery exit, we decided to stray from our itinerary and head that way first and hit Sol Duck on the way back.
Well we didn’t know what to expect about the NW most point. But I did think it would have something like Key West does for the Southern most point another photo opportunity. The drive there was pretty looking out over the Strait of Juan De Fuca and being able to see Canada and all but when we got to the very end past the Makah Reservation and realized we had to hike to get to the point, we stopped and started back. That is what we get for not researching this part of the trip. It took a little over an hour to get there and another hour to get back. Oh well.
We made it to the Sol Duc area and took a hike up the trail. WOW!!!! I have seen some beautiful falls before in Maui, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington however I was really impressed with the beauty of Sol Duc Falls. We loved it. It was stunning. The 3 falls are great but so is the scenery surrounding it. The girls and I didn’t stay down there to long, but hubby did until the lighting was better. We just waited for him in the van.
Then we began the long journey back to Everett. We made it to the ferry at Kingston for the 11:10PM crossing and I cant remember what time we got to the house.
Friday 8/5 we rested, packed and hung out.
Saturday 8/6 we departed for the flight back.
We had an awesome trip. We loved the wild Washington Coast and cant wait to come back. The cabin was fabulous. Everything turned out more wonderful than we could have imagined.
My hubby, daughter and I all like to take photos and so we all 3 had our own camera. Between the 2 of us (hubby and I) we took over 2700 digital photos. We parted ways and went on our own during the beach combings so I had no idea what he took photos of and vice versa so we did end up with some similar photos but that’s ok. I apologize for not posting this trip report sooner but it was a ton of photos to weed through and then post to the website. Thank you to everyone who posts about this area, we planned the majority of this trip from the postings I look at almost daily.
Sep 16th, 2005, 11:06 AM
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Sounds like a wonderful trip! We used to live near Everett so know the area very well. All these trip reports make me really miss it. Especially being able to see mountains any direction you look. Glad you got to experience so much!
Sep 16th, 2005, 11:50 AM
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Too long? Too boring? Not at all Kinch! I love the PNW as you brought back all the memories of being there when my DD was growing up, right down to picking the wild berries! Now I only seem to get as far north as Portland.
Thank you for sharing your trip. You sound like you have a beautiful family and I am sure these trips will be remembered by your duaghters forever.
Thank you for sharing your trip. You sound like you have a beautiful family and I am sure these trips will be remembered by your duaghters forever.
Sep 16th, 2005, 12:18 PM
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I am glad everyone is enjoying the report and photos! The only sad thing about the whole trip was my girlfriend (whom we were visiting) and her 2 kids were going to go to the ONP with us for the few days but at the last minute she backed out due to her toddler who is a very busy boy. So we ended up still taking her daughter. The girls had the best time together. So it all worked out, just sad that my friend missed so much beauty!
Sep 16th, 2005, 12:38 PM
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I'm a Portland guy, so usually don't read trip reports of Washington, but someone here wrote something about photos, so I took a second look. Thanks! I particularly like this one: http://www.worldisround.com/articles.../photo317.html
Sep 16th, 2005, 05:29 PM
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Kinch
Thanks for a great posting. I know it takes a lot of time to do a report, and often wonder if anyone reads it.
We visited ONP this year and also LOVED Second Beach. It seemed as though we really had the spot to ourselves and could have spent even more time there than we did. We missed Ruby Beach because it was raining quite heavily when we were in that area, so I'm glad to hear that you liked Second better.
Thanks for a great posting. I know it takes a lot of time to do a report, and often wonder if anyone reads it.
We visited ONP this year and also LOVED Second Beach. It seemed as though we really had the spot to ourselves and could have spent even more time there than we did. We missed Ruby Beach because it was raining quite heavily when we were in that area, so I'm glad to hear that you liked Second better.
Sep 17th, 2005, 11:09 AM
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I had to take a journal to be able to do the trip report. I knew I could not remember everything. I got so much useful travel tips when planning my wedding in Maui a couple of years ago and was too overwelmed to do a trip report. I have no idea of where half of our pictures were taken at along the Hana Hwy because I hadnt thought to do a film log. But now I know better. I was going to post driving times as well but would only remember to jot down the starting time and hardly ever remembering the finish time. Oh well!
Sep 18th, 2005, 08:16 PM
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Kinch,
this was a very interesting report! Whales and slugs lol all of the wildlife came out to see you
Your photos were fantastick! Thanks for posting the album.
And you got the whale spraying! How many people stand for hours, days!! waiting to get one of those pictures ? Do you get seasick going out to see the whales?
this was a very interesting report! Whales and slugs lol all of the wildlife came out to see you
Your photos were fantastick! Thanks for posting the album.
And you got the whale spraying! How many people stand for hours, days!! waiting to get one of those pictures ?
Do you get seasick going out to see the whales?
Sep 19th, 2005, 06:16 AM
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Thanks Scarlett for the kind word and I am glad you enjoyed the photos!.
Actually I have never been seasick fortunately. I grew up in Jacksonville and my grandfather was a big fisherman and shrimper, so I spent many times in his boat on the St. Johns River. I am now in Fort Myers and have taken the high speed ferry to Key West a couple of times and I was warned that it can make one sick so I take Bonine just in case. But have never even thought to take it while doing the whale tour.
Actually I have never been seasick fortunately. I grew up in Jacksonville and my grandfather was a big fisherman and shrimper, so I spent many times in his boat on the St. Johns River. I am now in Fort Myers and have taken the high speed ferry to Key West a couple of times and I was warned that it can make one sick so I take Bonine just in case. But have never even thought to take it while doing the whale tour.
Sep 19th, 2005, 08:15 AM
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I just realized I never mentioned where the cabin was that we stayed in while visiting the ONP. We stayed in LaPush at the Ocean Park Resort.
http://www.ocean-park.org/index2.html
We had a 2 bdrm cabin with a view to die for. This place was so awesome. We would stay there aagain in a heartbeat.
http://www.ocean-park.org/index2.html
We had a 2 bdrm cabin with a view to die for. This place was so awesome. We would stay there aagain in a heartbeat.
Sep 19th, 2005, 08:36 AM
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Very nice report, thanks for sharing your trip with us. We loved the Pacific Northwest, especially Hoh Rainforest. How lucky you saw the whales 'breeching'! We saw several on our tour out of Pt Townsend but they were just hanging out and not doing anything cool like that.
Sep 20th, 2005, 06:31 AM
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Yes! We felt very lucky to see the whales breaching. On my very 1st trip out to Seatlle I did a whale tour and they were ACTIVE, very active. The next time I was out there, was a little disappointing. We tried so hard to get good photos. I have a great appreciation for whale photos because I can only imagine how long it took to get the shot.
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