The Painted Hills
We are officially on the road after spending one last night at our friend’s house. Our first stop was the Painted Hills in central Oregon.
Continue reading…Category: Travel Destinations
Crater Lake National Park
Prior to this trip, my memories from Crater Lake were from my honeymoon…exciting, magical, good strenuous hikes, amazing views, so much knowledge to soak in. I wondered what our experience would be like with two sweet little ones.
Continue reading…Mt Hood Off-Grid Campsite Scouting and a Broken Van
After returning from our 2 week Olympic Peninsula trip we spent two weeks at home before we got the itch to get out camping again. We headed out to Mt Hood National Forest for what was supposed to be an off-grid-campsite scouting trip… but things didn’t go exactly as planned…
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 14-15: Kalaloch & Ruby Beach
A campground right on the beach! We arrived a little after noon on a Friday and weren’t sure what we would find left as far as scenic sites. As you may have guessed, all the beach view sites were taken. Something we noticed though was that the beach sites were pretty tiny. Of course there were a couple that had a little more space but as a whole you paid a price for your view. Not far away from the beach we found a lovely site with a hidden gem!
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 11-13: Hoh Rainforest
We stayed in a rainforest for 3 nights though our girls didn’t believe it was a rainforest (it didn’t rain once while we were there). The campground was beautiful, and I think we got the best spot right next to the river. We enjoyed some short hikes in the mossy forest, playing by the river, and riding bikes around the campground.
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 9-10: Sol Duc Campground and Hot Springs
Sol Duc Campground was our first campsite in this trip where we didn’t have luxuries such as electricity and free dump and fill-up options for Wobbles (our camper). The draw to this particular campground was the Sol Duc Hot Springs close by. The campground was in a wonderful tall growth forest which was beautiful! This is what we had lacked thus far on this trip, the woods!
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 7-8: KOA, Hurricane Ridge & Olympic Game Farm
I know! We stayed at a KOA. I can only half believe I am admitting this to the public. Don’t get me wrong, KOA’s are not bad places to stay, however, I don’t really consider them “camping” spots either. They are full of luxuries that do not go under my definition of camping. At a KOA that Justin and I once stayed at we were forced to listen to a horrific Elvis impersonator painfully sing who-knows-what being blasted from loud speakers throughout the park. It was enough to make someone’s ears bleed. As you can guess, I was a bit skeptical having this on our list of stops but we were due for a clean load of laundry. Truth be told, it was a great stay!
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 3-6: Fort Worden State Park & Port Townsend
For the second stop on our 2 week Olympic Peninsula trip we drove 1 hour from Dosewallips State Park up to Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. Since it was a Monday, we didn’t make reservations and assumed we’d have no problem finding a site. As it turned out when we arrived there were only 2 sites available for the 4-day stretch that we wanted to stay (at-least at the more popular beach campground), so we considered ourselves lucky to have snagged one! We loved Fort Worden and the surrounding Port Townsend– there was so much to explore that we couldn’t see it all in our 4 day visit.
Continue reading…Olympic Peninsula Trip Days 1-2: Dosewallips State Park
We’ve started our next “test trip” with the girls in our new camping rig, “Wobbles” the Airstream and “Dimes” the van (which has recently been given this name by our 4-year-old). We’re exploring the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National park for 2+ weeks. Since our girls don’t make driving long distances particularly easy or pleasant, we’re trying to break up the drives as much as possible. Therefore, we reserved the last available campsite at Dosewallips State Park, part way up the peninsula, in order break up our drive up to the North-Eastern corner of the peninsula.