Washington State: Olympic Peninsula

Overview

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Day 2 (Apr 8): Arriving at Pacific Beach Resort, Pizza at hotel

Day 3 (Apr 9): Pacific Beach, Quinalt Rainforest, Ruby Beach, Forks, WA, First Beach, Second Beach, Supper in Forks, Long drive to Port Angeles

Day 2: Arriving in Pacific Beach

After a crazy end to our time in Seattle searching for my wallet and visiting the Museum of Flight, we hit the road on our way to Pacific Beach around 5pm. We made a quick stop for supper at Dairy Queen in Tacoma before making the long drive (which was even longer with a baby in tow) to our accommodations at Pacific Beach Resort.

It was a very trying day with all the commotion, so after arriving at the hotel, we grabbed a pizza at the only place left open at that time of night and ate it at the hotel room while getting ready for bed. Mark and the rest of the family went out to hang out for a while and check out the amenities, but I was just plum tuckered out and Cashel and I hit the hay earlier than the rest.

Day 3: Pacific Beach, Quinalt Rainforest, First & Second Beach to Port Angeles

We were up fairly early to be on our way for a very jam-packed day touring the Olympic Peninsula! We had a hearty breakfast in the hotel restaurant before getting loaded up and on our way around 10am, en-route to Quinalt Rainforest.

Pacific Beach

We made a quick stop at Pacific Beach first, however, and wandered the beach for a while. We sure wish we'd had more time to relax at many of the places we stopped this day. The views were so breathtaking!

Quinalt Rainforest

After our short stop at Pacific Beach, we hit the road to Quinalt Rainforest. We arrived around 10:30am and explored for a while one of the trails before deciding to make our way on over to the World's Largest Spruce Tree not too far off. We set out afterwards to find some lunch, only to find that nothing was open yet (too early in the season), so we hit the road again to try to find something to eat.

The Rainforest contained the World's Largest Spruce Tree - it was ENORMOUS!


Lake Quinalt

Ruby Beach

After a strange lunch of somewhat decent chicken tenders from a gas station we found leaving town, we hit the road again and made the trek over to Ruby Beach, which we had heard was beautiful! After a short, easy hike down the trail, we came upon this:

We spent more time here than any of the other beaches we stopped at, but we don't regret that - it was incredible! Mark found a couple starfish, which was cool.

Forks, WA

Our next "stop" was in Forks, which we thought was supposed to be really cool, except there really wasn't anything there to see or do. I suppose there would have been if any of us were Twilight fans, but alas, we weren't, so it was just a boring little town that was mostly passed through. Of course, we got a picture of the sign and by the fisherman's memorial, but beyond that, we headed on to find First Beach.

First Beach

First Beach was incredibly easy to find once we drove there - MUCH easier than the other beaches, as we just hopped out of the car and were there. It was beautiful, but after having been to Ruby Beach, we were only somewhat "wow"d by it.

I didn't dare chance taking little Cashel out with me on the branch there, but stayed behind to get pictures of everyone else.


Not bad for 8 weeks after having a baby!

Second Beach

Second beach was a different story as far as ease of reaching it, but WHOA was it ever worth the hike! There's something about an un-touched beach like this that just leaves you in awe. It makes you feel so small and powerless against the wonder of our God and his creation. It just makes your jaw drop and takes your breath away when you first see it.

We still had a bit of a trek that evening, after we stopped to eat at a little diner in Forks, but we made it to Port Angeles before it got too terribly late.

It was a very long day of traveling, hiking, and exploring, but one of the most memorable days of our trip. I know I'm quite the slave driver when it comes to travel planning and keeping to a schedule, but I think I speak for everyone when I say they're all glad I do it, because otherwise we would have missed out on all of the beauty and wonder of the Olympic Peninsula. Of course, we still have plenty to revisit some day, but we had enough :)