camping in the Olympics: day 1

I started this post a week ago. Guess I should finally finish it. Here's a map for reference.

The drive up was great. There was a stop at the outlet malls in Centralia where I scored two pair of jeans for the low, low price of $7.97 each and a quick lunch. We drove up to Olympia and then headed northwest along the Hood Canal for quite a ways and had pretty mountain views. 

Our campsite was surrounded by pencil trees. I particularly liked camping there because it stayed dry. We had a dry picnic table every morning unlike camping on the coast when everything is wet from the mist and fog.

The tall boy tent has served us well. It has newly strung poles and is big enough for the dog crate. However, now we've seen tents that have doors. Something to think about for the future, should the tall boy die an untimely death.

 We stayed at Sequim Bay State Park which is right on the southwest side of Sequim Bay.

If you go to the very southern part of Sequim Bay you'll end up at the S'Kallum Tribe Community Center. We stopped for a quick look around. There were lots of totem poles,

Native American art, and a beautiful garden.

Once we were settled in and had some air in the air mattress we headed up to Hurricane Ridge. I had no idea this place even existed, (I mean, I knew there were mountains, but I didn't know about this amazing place to take it all in) but my husband always does his homework before we travel and he had it all planned out. Oh my goodness, Olympic National Park is beautiful. I'll let the pictures do the talking. . .

The Strait of Juan de Fuca and Victoria, BC, is behind us. You can get there by ferry out of Port Angeles.

 Mt. Olympus, highest in the Olympics.

We kind of have a tradition (that I often forget about) of having someone take a picture of us from behind. We have one from our engagement pictures. We have one on our honeymoon of us walking on the beach. (The guy thought I was a wacko when I asked him to take that particular picture.) We have one on our first anniversary at the ocean, and I'm sure there are a few more somewhere. Now we have one of us at Hurricane Ridge.