For our first trip of 2022, we had a whirlwind adventure - hiking in the snow to climbing over logs on the beach. Sara started Ski lessons, so our first van trip of the year was Sunday and Monday of a long weekend (Saturday was ski lessons). There was alot of driving on this trip, more than I expected, but we got to see it all, snowy mountains, rainforest, and a very stormy (and rainy) beach.
We left Seattle on Sunday morning (not super early) and drove to the ferry to head to the peninsula. It took us about 3 hours to get to our first destination - Hurricane Ridge. I’ve been to Hurricane Ridge in the summer and it’s beautiful - lots of views from the middle of the Olympic mountain range and some fun hiking in and around the ridge with creeks and small lakes all around.
When we got there, we had to sit in a ~1 hour line to enter the National park. Apparently, they setup a small ski area up there (3 rope tows) with $13 per day lift tickets - that’s right, you heard me correctly. It looked super fun, but we didn’t bring our skiis this time. Next time for sure. We couldn’t find Sara’s sunglasses so we bought her some new ones and we were on our way.
The one thing that didn’t change was the amazing views of the moutains ajacent Hurricane ridge. Everywhere you looked, there was a new sight to take it.
We ended up doing a couple of miles down the road, checked out a trail down a small creek, and then finished up by making it to the start of the actual trail. In the winter, they shut down the last couple of miles of road and turn it into cross country ski trails. Another next time would be to bring some skins and skiis to make some better time on the road section (and hopefully do some hiking on the trail itself).
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Sara was very proud of her new sunglasses and was loving getting her picture taken in front of just about anything. We have an aspiring model on our hands… :)
Sara stopped and wanted to make snow angels at one point on a bit of a slope, she ended up sliding down every time she moved - which made for some enjoyable times for me… :)
After we finished up at Hurricane Ridge, we headed around the peninsula to forks and Rialto beach. We stayed at Mora campground (NPS campsite open in the winter). Sara got to crafting while I was getting dinner ready and made her “stick-up” camera to take pictures of use while we were camping.
We made pasta for dinner with cheese sauce and Sara though it tasted just like Mac and cheese and ate basically everything.
We finished a movie we started like 3 months ago and went to bed.
The next morning we made biscuits and gravy. This was my first attempt to make them but the recipe was simple - we used impossible burger meat (cooked up) and added cream of mushroom soup concentrate and added half of a beef bouillon cube. Biscuits were just the roll of dough we cooked up. I thought they ended up amazing, Sara wasn’t as much of a fan - but I think that had more to do with how much pasta she ate the night before. Still, she ate some of the biscuit and we headed out for Rialto beach.
The beach was quite stormy when we got there. It was also approaching high tide, so we did a lot of our hiking inline or racing past fallen trees to avoid the waves.
We were basically the only ones out there once we went about 1/4 mile from the trail head. We didn’t quite make it to hole in the wall, but we got pretty close. The last several hundred feet were getting really hit by the waves and I decided it wasn’t worth it. It was also high tide so we wouldn’t have been able to go into the hole anyway.
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I was very impressed with Sara (as I always am) - she was climbing over these logs that were as tall as she was for over 2.5 miles. She was more exited about it than most of our easier hikes. I think she like the mild adversity (just like her father…) :)
Some videos of the huge waves we had to contend with
Also in classic form, Sara collected all the treasures.
Oakley also had a blast, for the most part. I took her off leash after we stopped seeing people (and so I could actually get over the logs without dying) and she just raced up and down like she was a puppy. I knew for sure this was going to take 3-4 days for her to recover from…
Sara decided to make a shelter to keep the rain out. :)
Once we got to the end, I rewarded her by carrying her back (for about a mile and a half) in the backpack.
We saw several tracks on the way back. I was convinced the first one was a cougar because I couldn’t see any claw marks, but I’m less convinced now that I see the picture. The paw print was huge though, just based on size the cougar seemed the most likely.
I wasn’t sure what this one was. Very small track and had 5 fingers pointing forward - so my guess is some kind of weasel, skunk, etc.
Right before we got back, we found a dead squid and I showed Sara all the parts of it. It was pretty big, probably as long as Sara is tall.
We headed back home after we got to the car (around 2pm). It was a long drive and we had to make a few stops to help calm Sara’s stomach, get food, etc. Ended up taking about 4.5 hours, so we didn’t get back until late - but what a great way to start the new year!