Olympic National Park

One of our travel goals is to visit as many of the national parks as possible and we're doing a good job.  Part of our 2007 visit to the Northwest included a couple of days at Olympic National Park.  WOW!  That is a beautiful and diverse park from its splendid shoreline  to its mountain peaks.   However, if you visit, be prepared for rain!  Well, part of the park is a rainforest so I guess rain is necessary! 

Here we are in the rainforest:

Journal if you are interested:

We decided to head to Oregon for the FMCA International Rally in August 2007 as we’d never attended a large rally and we thought it would be a good place to learn something and probably spend money on something we most likely, did not need. Well, if you’re going to drive to Oregon, you might as well take in Seattle, Olympic National Park, and whatever else strikes your fancy in the northwest.

So began another adventure. Our first stop was Seattle to visit old friends,  ****** who lived in a beautiful early 20th century home in West Seattle with a view to “die-for” of the sound. Dick has known **** and **** since his time at Naval Post Graduate School and I met them when we lived in Burke, VA. (They are one of the couples that went on the Alaska cruise with us.) We were able to park our motorhome on a wide residential street in front of their house. That was uneventful except for the drunk that banged on the motorhome on his way home at about two in the morning. I think he was just a college kid having a little fun but it did frighten us for just a moment.
Our next stop was Widbey Island for a couple nights camping and then on to Olympic National Park. We took a ferry from the island to the Olympic peninsula. Unfortunately, the weather was typical of what one expects, rainy and cloudy, so we were not able to see the mountains but the park was still beautiful. It is such a diverse park with landscapes ranging from coastal beauty to the dense and rich greens of the rain forest traversing to the mountain peaks.
From there we began our trip towards Redmond, Oregon and decided to stop at Mount St. Helens. That was a last minute decision that turned out to be the highlight of our trip. The story of the eruption and its impact on the surrounding lands is incredible and quite the sight to behold, even 17 years after the eruption.
Finally, we arrived in Redmond, Oregon. Because of the dogs, we had reserved a camping site at the fairgrounds with full electrical hookups. Provost motorhomes that go for a half a million and up surrounded us. There we were in our humble Seneca! We had a good laugh at that. Dick took in the safe motorhome driving course and I had fun visiting all the vendor booths. About those purchases of useless things we didn’t need….well now we have a Canadian goose “flag” that flutters from a flagpole that we purchased. I’m sure everyone needs one…..
After the rally, it was time to head for home and back to work. Later in 2007 we drove from Denver to Rocky Mount, NC to look for a house. We almost drove from coast to coast that year; all we missed was the 150 miles from Rocky Mount to the Atlantic shore.