The North Coast

After leaving Seattle in the afternoon, we drove deeper into Olympic National Park; the first night we made it as far as Millersylvania State Park.

An expensive little place to pitch a tent, they made up for it with a sweet swimming hole and showers.

Olympia National Forest is that beautiful, haunted, mysterious forest in all the fairy tales stories and

sci-fi movies. Full of strange little plants and bugs. Millions of trees hushing the traffic.

Nestled in this thick wood is the village of Olympia, where we purchased local blueberry wine, honey, and cheap produce.

Monarch Sculpture Park was a nice weird place to stop and take a look around on our drive Westward.

The path took you on a walk through a garden stuffed with installations, sculptures, and oversized plants. It was free, and appeared to be in the back yard of a Joan Miro fan.

We drove around Olympic National Forest in what turned out to be a circle, and ended up only about 50 miles from Olympia, in Dugeness National Forest.

Though it felt like a lifetime, we had been driving on Highway 101 East for about a day when we discovered Hama Hama Oyster Bar and fresh fish shop. We sampled the clams and oysters and they were stellar.

We stopped at a couple beaches because despite the cold, we couldn't resist the sweet-smelling temptation of the salt water or the chance to dip our toes in.

While driving through Dugeness, we eventually found a small campground near Port Angeles.

Though we tented it, they had some extravagant tent-cabin structures for the fancy pants outdoorsmen.

We had a great spot by the water here in a mostly empty campground. It was quiet, damp and smelled of rain.

It had been getting progressively cooler since we left Montana, and this was our coldest night so far; about 40 degrees.

The next day, we drove into Port Angeles and took the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island, B.C.

You can read about that adventure in the next post, "Oh, Canada"

After returning from B.C., we bunked in Dugeness once again. We had the privilege of falling asleep to the waves crashing around. What a rough life.

Once we got moving the next morning, we drove up through Raymond and were spoiled with a cheap and extensive farmer's market. By now our diets consisted entirely of farmer's market fruit, freeze-dried meals, and of course hot dogs.

The meandering highway eventually brought us to Bruceport Co. Campground. Right on the Coast, it was exactly what we'd been looking for. We bummed around here for nearly a day.

#northcoast #canada #vancouverisland #victoria #olympia #olympicnationalforest