The second part of this road trip is focused on just the Olympic Peninsula. I was unsure of how exactly to plan this part when I first sat down to map out our trip. Like everywhere else, there was just so much we could see and do. Looking at a map I knew right away I wanted to us start at one point and make our way around the peninsula. So with that settled, I just now had to choose our stops.

We headed to Aberdeen the “Gateway to the Olympics” (and where Kurt Cobain is from) and then turned up state highway 101 towards the Quinalt valley. Quinalt is one of two temperate rainforests located in the peninsula. Once we were there we parked and hiked through the forest. The trees were large and amazing. We could crawl through them, and there were stumps that our whole family could stand on together. We drove around Quinalt lake for a bit and then stopped off to see the world’s largest spruce tree located in the Quinalt Valley. The sign said this tree was 191′ tall and about 1,000 years old. Definitely worth the stop.

We then got back on 101 and drove towards the Pacific Ocean. We decided that the Ruby Beach pull-off was the best one for the ease of parking and the easy walk to the ocean. Even with the overcast skies and the drizzle of rain, the ocean and it’s giant rock islands were absolutely gorgeous. The Pacific Ocean and beach are so different than the ones we are use to traveling to, but no less amazing. We took our shoes off (and some changed into water shoes) and explored the water and tide pools, climbed over driftwood, and hiked down the beach.

Back on the road, we were running a little low on time but decided last minute to stop at the Hoh Rainforest. On my original plans, I had us stopping there and spending the afternoon hiking, but we had spent so much time at the ocean, we just were not sure if it still fit in the schedule. Once I talked everyone in to a quick stop, we had our rain jackets on and were on the trail for an even quicker hike. And I’m glad we fit this in because this hike is where we saw the bear! The rainforest of course was stunning but the bear was the showstopper for my family. It came out onto the trail maybe 50 feet in front of us. It could care less that we were hiking and so we stopped, grabbed our cameras, and watched it slowly move across the trail, around a tree, and then down into the woods (probably towards the river that flowed through the forest).

Next we headed to Forks (yes, as in the Twilight movie) and grabbed a quick burger and fries to go from Sully’s Burgers (they were delicious). I couldn’t talk my family into a Twilight tour, but that’s ok because we really didn’t have the time. We made our way to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. We arrived there just as the sun was beginning to set, and maybe it was because the sun was setting but I believe it might be the most stunning place visually I have ever been. You can read about this beautiful place in my other post here.

We drove to Port Angeles and stayed the night in a little hotel that had a laundry mat on site. When you are traveling for over a week with a family of 5, at some point doing laundry is a necessity. We woke up the next morning and drove over to the Olympic National Park visitors center just to go in and buy a souvenir. There was a layer of fog covering the mountain and so we really couldn’t see it. From the hundreds of people that were there waiting to get a pass to be able to hike up the mountain, I’m glad I had never put that one on our list of things to do. Instead we grabbed our puzzle and t-shirt and headed on to Seattle…

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