We left the AirBnB in the early afternoon and headed south to Edmonds. We were able to catch the ferry there across the bay to Kingston. Saved us about three hours of driving so I was thankful for that. Especially after the fiasco of fixing the car the day before.
The ferry ride went rather smoothly. Only about thirty minutes into Kingston and then another hour drive to Sequim Bay State Park.
It wasn’t the nicest park that we’d been to. Close to the road and you could hear the traffic passing by during the day but it wasn’t all that bad during the evening. Pretty empty so we had a lot of privacy. Hot showers too. There was a small hiking trail and a boat ramp with a dock overlooking the bay close by to the campsite.
We met this man the first night we were there by the dock. He had this small dog and Amanda instantly chatted him up. His name was Madison and he was on a road trip around the United States. In a minivan with little to no amenities outside of a bed. Made me grateful for the Chevy and all the (basic) amenities we have.
He had just started (he was from Seattle) and he was just hanging out on the peninsula for the time being. The fires in eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana prevented him from traveling east as he had originally planned.
We talked for a bit and shared our stories. We had a good deal in common. Worked corporate for years and just wasn’t enjoying his setup. So he decided to shake things up a bit. It’s fun to see other people going after it and not following the beaten path.
Our original plan was to hang out at the state park for a few days and then head over to the Hurrican Ridge area of the park. But the road was closed for the season starting on Friday. The day we planned to go. I hadn’t realized it before doing a bit more research. Our only option was to go on Thursday afternoon.
The drive was just purely uphill. You start at sea level and you have to drive 5,000 feet to the visitors center. The clouds and the mist hung in the valleys and the visibility was non-existent on the way up. Kind of like that movie “The Mist”. Really sad ending though.
Anyway, when we got up there the visibility was a bit better but it was still very cloudy. It was difficult to see the entire range in the distance, which is what you come for. We stopped in the visitors center but there wasn’t much information available. Just some small blurbs about the history of the area and the people who helped push for its national park stays.
The lack of information was kind of disappointing. I like stopping into the visitors centers and soaking up what they have to offer. This was a constant theme in Olympic National Park. I thought they could have done a lot more with the exhibits.
We walked along the ridge for a little bit instead of doing the 2-mile trek up to Hurricane Hill. We decided that the workout wasn’t worth it at that point. We weren’t going to be able to see much more from that vantage point.
The views in the northern direction were pretty cool. The tops of small mountains would poke out above the clouds here and there. Overall a bit disappointing to come on a day when the weather didn’t cooperate. Especially after our experience with the fires in North Cascades. But we didn’t really have much of an option.