The Nonsense of W&J

One of our favorite adventures in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State is the hike to Rialto Beach, located in the Olympic National Park.  We love the Olympic Peninsula for its coastal beaches, mountains, lavender farms, and its unique beaches and sea life.  And the beaches contain so much sea life!  Before reaching Split Rock and Hole in the wall, you will see a few rocks on the beach with starfish.  However, when you arrive at Split Rock, you will be overwhelmed by the number and variety of starfish and sea anemones.

Our favorite place on Rialto Beach is Split Rock.  We couldn’t believe how many starfish and sea anemones were in this area!  We spent most of our time at Split Rock, counting the starfish and listening to the waves.  It took us awhile to pull ourselves away and hike back even though the tide was coming in.

To hike this trail, you can use the Rialto Beach Tide Chart to determine when low tide occurs.  You must hike the beach during low tide as it is not accessible during high tide.  This is a short 3.3 mile hike along the beach.  You will see many people on this hike and you can easily follow them from the parking lot.  Restrooms are available at the parking lot.

From the parking lot, simply turn right and hike down the beach with lots of other people on the Hole-in-the-Wall Trail.  Give yourself plenty of time to explore and take your picture at Hole-in-the Wall.  Check out all the amazing sea life and have fun!  Although we also explored Kalaloch Beach 4in the Olympic National Park, Rialto Beach is our favorite beach in this area and we will visit again when we come back.

Washington is one of our favorite states to explore.  We tend to shy away from big cities like Seattle and focus on hiking, kayaking, and adventuring.  Although we spent many months in Washington, there is still a lot of adventuring in this state on our bucket list.  Below is a list of our favorite explorations in Washington and future explorations on our bucket list.

Our Favorite Explorations in Washington

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier was one of our favorite national parks to hike and explore.   We visited the park several days while staying at Paradise RV Campground Thousand Trails in 173 Salem Plant Rd, Silver Creek, WA 98585.  Our favorite hikes in the national park were the Freemont Trail, the Skyline Trail, and Comet Falls.  Although we visited the park in July, there was still some snow on the Freemont Trail.  We hiked the Skyline Trail in several inches of snow.  It required quite of a bit of exertion and caution.  The Skyline Trail is the one hiking trail that we wish we had hiking poles.  To come back down from the Panorama Point, Jessica had to slide on her butt part way.

The Freemont Fire Lookout was Windell’s favorite trail until we explored Zion National Park in Utah.  However, we are not finished with Mount Rainier.  When we return, we want to hike the Tolmie Peak Fire Lookout and the Sourdough Ridge Trailhead.  Of course, we will probably be adding more explorations to the list as we continue watching Wandering Washington on her excursions.

Olympic Peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula is truly an amazing place to visit.  The temperate rainforest, Pacific coastline, lavender farms, and the extraordinary features of this area will simply take your breath away.  We stayed at KM Resorts – Diamond Point Resort 294 Industrial Pkwy, Sequim, WA 98382, which is one of our RPI membership parks.  Sequim, Washington is a fabulous place to visit lavender farms and hike the spit to the Dungeness Lighthouse.  Read our blog regarding hiking the Dungeness Spit with the tide tables.

While we were there, we also visited the Olympic National Park for some amazing beaches and hikes.  Our favorite hike was to Rialto Beach during low tide.  We never saw so many different colored starfishes and sea anemones in our lives.  Split rock was our favorite spot to explore during this hike.  If we return to the Olympic Peninsula, we will be hiking this beach again.  We did have to check our tide schedule and we have a short blog on Hiking Rialto Beach.

We also hiked Hurricane Hill and Kalaloch Beach 4.  However, they were not our favorite explorations.  When we return to the Olympic Peninsula, we would like to attempt to hike the Mt. Ellinor Lower Trailhead and Mount Storm King.  We did not attempt these at the time simply because we weren’t sure of our abilities.  However, since hiking and pushing ourselves more, we are more confident in hiking more elevation and Jessica is a little less afraid of hikes.

Crescent Lake is a sight to behold.  The lake is incredibly blue and many people were jumping off the bridge into the Devils Punchbowl.  We kayaked this lake in the afternoon after hiking to Marymere Falls.  However, next time we will kayak it in the morning with less wind!

San Juan Island

We love sea creatures and chartering boats to see wildlife in the oceans.  While staying at La Conner RV & Camping Resort 16362 Snee Oosh Rd, La Conner, WA 98257 Thousand Trails, we booked a ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Island.  We love Washington ferries!  Taking a ferry to an Island is a great way to get some scenery and maybe see some wildlife.

Exploring a little of the San Juan Island was fun.  However, our main reason for going to the Island was our booked boat charter to see some Killer Whales.  Besides our YouTube video, we also wrote a short blog on our Killer Whale Adventure.  We had an amazing time, although the boat trip was a little colder than we expected.  When we return to this area, we would like to explore more of the Islands, including Orcas Island.  Maybe Jessica can even convince Windell to kayak around the areas.

Future Desired Explorations in Washington

Leavenworth

Although we explored the town of Leavenworth and did a few hikes, there are some amazing areas that we did not know about or explore while we were there.  When we return, we want to hike the Cascade Pass Trailhead to Sahale Arm Trail, and especially The Enchantments.  The Enchantments will be an intense one day hike.  We want to apply for a backpacking permit to stay overnight.  This hike is our main bucket list item in the Leavenworth area, although we realize it will be extremely challenging.

North Cascades

We did not visit the North Cascades National Park or surrounding area while we were in Washington.  At the time, there were many vehicle break-ins while they were repaving parking lots and we didn’t want to chance it.  However, as we watch our favorite YouTubers hike the North Cascades, we have discovered many hikes to add to our bucket list, including Trappers Peak, Sourdough Mountain Trail, Lake Ann Trail, Hidden Lake Lookout Trail, and many more.  We are sorry we did not explore this area more while in Washington.  Thousand Trails has a campground near North Cascades National Park.  It is Grandy Creek 1000 Trails 7370 Russell Rd, Concrete, WA 98237 or you can reserve Goodell Creek Campground State Rte 20, Marblemount, WA 98267 or another National Park Campground.

We love whale and other marine life watching and we love boats.  So, while we were staying in the La Conner Thousand Trails in Washington State, we booked a Killer Whales Charter from San Juan Island.

Before arriving at the docks for the charter with Western Prince Whale Watching Adventures, we had to take a Washington State Ferry from Anacortes to San Juan.  We love taking the ferries in Washington State that provide access to the Pacific Islands in the area.  The ferries have always been clean.  And, loving boats as we do, the ferry trip itself is a fun adventure.  You can book the ferries online with WSDOT and see the Islands and schedules.  If you are in Washington, we definitely recommend taking a ferry ride.

We took the earliest ferry ride from Anacortes to San Juan so we could explore a little of the Island.  Specifically we wanted to visit the Lime Kiln State Park on the Island.  Lime Kiln has a whale watching observation viewpoint and a lighthouse.  Although we did not see any whales from the observation point while visiting, many have.

After exploring the Island, we parked the truck and hiked down the the Friday Harbor docks to get our gear and board our boat.  We love marine life, as you can tell from our videos.  And we were so excited to book a charter to see Killer Whales.  The best time to see Orcas is April through October.  Humpback whales are more often seen August through October.  However, it is possible to see whales and other wildlife year round.

On our charter, we saw a family of killer whales that live in the waters.  It was amazing to see the only male, a brother, and several sisters together of the family pod.  The top fin of the male was six feet tall – the same height as Windell!  Unfortunately, we did not see the mother who at the time had a baby with her.  It was an exhilerating experience and our first whale watching tour.  Since then, we are committed to going on more whale watching tours whenever we can.

Although it was summer when we visited San Juan, being on the boats is chilly.  We were cold, especially on the Killer Whale charter.  If you book a charter or ride the ferry in Washington, you may want gloves, a sock cap, and very warm socks.  It will make your adventures more comfortable.  The charter will provide you with warm clothing for the rest of your body, however.

This was an amazing experience and we still talk about the Orcas to this day.  We have never regretted booking any whale watching or Orca charter.  They are so much fun and we always learn a lot about the animals.

One of our most memoriable hikes in Washington is hiking to the New Dungenss Lighthouse.  You must hike a spit to access the lighthouse.  The hike was approximately 11 miles to and back on the spit.  As we usually do, we parked early in the morning to begin the hike.  We wanted to make sure we hiked the spit at low tide as per the tide chart .  The low tide is ideal for hiking so the beach is exposed.  During high tide, the hike can be more difficult as you walk across the logs and other debris at the top that has been swept up onto the beach.

The morning we decided to hike the spit was gorgeous.  We had a lot of fun walking the beach, looking for sea creatures.  Although, we only saw a seal.  The best part of this hike is meeting the lighthouse keepers.  The lighthouse keepers pay to spend a week on the spit at the lighthouse.  Because we were the first to arrive, we got to spend time and actually talk with them about the history and the different objects found, which made it even more special.  If you ever wanted to hike a spit to a lighthouse and have an amazing experience, we definitely recommend hiking the Dungeness Spit to the New Dungenss Lighthouse.