It was a 10 hour drive from our campsite just south of Olympic National Park to our Campsite in Redwood National/State Parks. We planned for one stop in Astoria, Oregon just to see if we could find the House from the movie Goonies. Jeff found the place (had to walk a block because we couldn’t drive and turn around) but it was covered by trees and had lots of no trespassing signs. But he heard sea lions in the distance! So we all got out of the truck a couple blocks away and saw about 50 sea lions on the docks of the Columbia River near the fishing boats. I have some zoomed in photos on my real camera, but you can see them in the photo on here if you squint and use your imagination, LOL. It was a long day with lots of twisty roads that went through beautiful scenery, and we finally made it to our campsite about 8:30 pm. Got our camper set up in record time and relaxed a bit before it got fully dark.
A few deer crossed our road. We haven’t seen any bears or cougars so far, but we have seen a moose, fox (or maybe coyote), and very large elk.
We crossed this bridge near the mouth of the Columbia River. Three segments: this one was a third, there was a flat part across the middle third, and then another section like this for the final third. Think 2 Leo Frigo Bridges and a one like Butt des Morts Bridge on I41 but at least twice as long. I never get nervous on bridges but this one was immense!
See the bumps on the docks going along the on the center horizon of this photo? All those bumps are sea lions making just a ton of noise with their barking. They seemed to be facing the other direction most of the time as I tried to take photos with my camera that zooms in more. Perhaps they were waiting for handouts from those fishing ships? And notice the huge ship in the background. That was one of the lines up boats seen from the bridge.
Lots of logging goes on. From clear cut parts of the forest to logging trucks to processing facilities, it’s a major industry throughout western Oregon.
We finally got to the campsite about 8:30 pm and had to fill the water tank before we parked the camper. Jeff heard about this little handy facet that lets us get water directly from the water faucets where you can’t screw the regular hose into it. Works pretty well!
Olympic National Park Day. We camped 1.5 hours south (campgrounds were very booked up any closer), but on the way to the Park in the morning, we discovered the adorable vacation town of Seabrook. There was a small farmer’s market, a great bookstore, and a yummy bakery. It felt like the west coast version of Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls reference) and Spencer wants to move here and work at the bookstore when he grows up.
Once we tore ourselves away from the town, we headed to Hoh Rainforest. So much green! Such huge trees! I could have spent days there walking through those giants and taking photos and breathing in all that green. But alas, we had to leave because we wanted to go to Ruby Beach at low tide so we could explore the tide pools there. Jeff and I first discovered Ruby Beach when we were on our first road trip in 2005 and then again a couple years later when we stayed near there for our 10th Anniversary. We all loved climbing around over the huge logs and beach area. Tons more people than there was the previous times we were there, but it was still really cool and the boys loved it too.
About 200 people live in this planned vacation town. The houses and buildings all have the same type of look to them and it was very dog friendly. “Mom! Look at the doggie! Mom, another doggie!” Love it!
Olympic National Park is my favorite out of all the ones I’ve ever visited. You can see glaciers and alpine meadows (we are skipping that part), temperate rainforests, and coastal beaches all in one day.
The drive to actually get far enough into the park to get to the visitor center of the rainforest portion took forever, though the drive was gorgeous.
There is such competition on the floor of a rainforest that plants will start growing on “nurselogs”, fallen trees that other plants and trees start growing on.
I believe these are big-leaf maples and the moss growing on them are airplants. The Moss gets enough moisture out of the air and 12ft of rain that falls here each year so it doesn’t need soil.
Here you can see that the nurse log is pretty decomposed and the trees that grew on top of them have an intricate root system that is reaching towards the ground.
Signs all over to stay on the path not to keep the area pristine, but also because there were yellow jackets nests around.
These ferns were all over too. Called Western Sword ferns.
Carson and I trying to hug the tree and take a selfie. Physically impossible to do.
Here the nurse log is all decomposed. There were signs saying some of the trees in this forest were up to 1000 years old and up to 300 feet tall. Wow!
This tree must have fallen across the path at some point. The diameter was up to my neck.
Plants grow on plants which grow on plants here. Here is some lichen growing on moss, growing on a log.
And it surprises me but some of the huge, huge trees result from 1” pinecones like this!
I think I found the only thing in the rainforest that isn’t green (or brown with stuff growing on it).
Close up of the big fern
Once the family dragged me (and to some extent Spencer who also loved the trees) away from the Hoh Rainforest, we went to Ruby Beach. A couple minutes hiking downhill from here to get us there. The tide pools are by the sea stacks, which are the big rocks on the right of this photo.
Logs from the rainforest are washed down river and out to the ocean which then pushed them back onto shore during storms where they pile up. Notices are posted to be very careful because the logs can shift and move after high tide.
The boys contemplated life as they looked out over the ocean.
Both boys loved parkouring around on the rocks looking into the tide pools.
Barnacles and sea anemones (I think)
Mussels, small crab bones, shells. Also sea anenomes, and starfish! Discovered in the tide pool
We found a sea star!!
Carson was “surfing” as the tide came in
None of the birds were too near to us because there were so many people around. But I did find this feather.
There was driftwood everywhere, from pieces that could be picked up to huge tree sized pieces that you had to climb over. If we could have stayed longer, we could have built a small bonfire, but we had 1.5 hours to drive to get back to the campsite so that will have to wait until our next visit.
We got hotdogs for lunch and it actually wasn’t too high priced for a tourist place. And the hotdogs were delicious!
Such a quaint town and everyone was so friendly. Spencer announced that he loved this town and wanted to move here. Very high praise for sure!
Family selfie in the rainforest.
Jeff got romantic.
Ruby Beach is another place where I could have stayed for hours and hours to take pictures.
We only had a few hours of driving to get to the campsite on the coast, so we leisurely packed up and got moving around 11:30. A pretty drive of course. We got a full hook-up at this campground, and they had WiFi and most importantly, showers! We were right by a path that led directly to a tidal inlet. Carson and I explored it after we all got set up (Spencer and Jeff read their books). And I kept going back to take photos of the amazing sunset.
Carson likes to sweep the rug as we pack up. Each year the boys are better and better at helping with setup and takedown.
Paid our respects to Kurt Cobain as we drove through Aberdeen.
We are out on the tidal grasses (there is probably a name for this type of land).
A full hook-up means electricity (hurray!) and water and there is also a place to dump the gray water and black water.
Jeff made noddles with chicken for us, and Ramen for the boys for dinner.
The only campground that we have ever stayed at that provided free firewood. We normally don’t bother with a campfire on these trips because we don’t want to deal with buying firewood as we are getting there. Plus we are camping as a place to sleep and not as a place to hang out as much. But this was nice, and we could just hose it down to make sure it was completely put out at bedtime.
The campground even had a cart available to bring more wood to your campsite. Good idea!
Low tide at this point. I wanted to go out and take some more photos of the seagull (bigger than WI bird), but it was really muddy.
Plant photography
There were a couple chairs at the end of the path that were perfect to sit at and take photos every few minutes as the sun set.
Some clouds were starting to roll in so the moon through the trees had a haze to it.
Kline Road Trips 