I met fellow PNW Blogger Aimee Danielson back in 2021 when I first moved to Washington. She and I instantly hit it off and became friends and started camping and exploring together. Our first camping trip was in August 2021 where we met at South Beach Campground along the Washington coast, just north of the Quinault Reservation. Even though I have driven up and down this stretch of Highway 101 a few times already, I only overnighted a few times along the coast, but never actually camped properly, making this a fun, new adventure. South Beach Campground is a first-come, first-serve campground right on the southern end of the Olympic National Park, right after the Ashenbrenner Day Use Area. There are 55 campsites very close together, half of which are ocean front, and an easy walking path to access the beach below. This campground is only open May 21 through September 7, so keep that in mind if you plan on visiting. Since Aimee lives much closer than me, she got there early in the morning to secure a site for herself and scope out the campground for us. When I arrived, there was still a few spots left, though often this campground is quite full in the summer.
Aimee and her daughter Julie had a great ocean-front site while I parked along the inside cliff just above them. My site was right next to a culvert, which my cat Maverick loved exploring every day, plus that gave me a little more space not having a neighbor on one side. We camped for four days and were blessed with some great sunsets each night, though mornings were quite foggy. I enjoyed exploring the pebbled and sandy beach below on one of those foggy mornings, fascinated by the cool-looking tree remnants laying around. If you walk a bit north, you end up at to Beach 1, which can also be accessed via Highway 101.
Our first morning together, Aimee woke me up at 6am so we could check out Ruby Beach, which is about a 15 minute drive north. Ruby Beach is the northernmost of the southern beaches in the coastal section of the Olympic National Park and many consider it the most beautiful beach on the Olympic Peninsula. It is known for its abundant driftwood, stunning sunsets, and wild and rocky shores, with numerous sea stacks dotting the coastline. Destruction Island is located about 4 miles southwest of the beach and on a clear day you can see the island and its lighthouse from the beach. The Destruction Island Lighthouse’s Fresnel lens was removed in 1995 and is on exhibit at the Westport Maritime Museum, which I blogged about previously.
Aimee and I spent quite some time on Ruby Beach in the fog checking out all the tide pools and walking right up to the various sea stacks since the tide was super low that morning. We saw so many bright starfish, giant anemones, and shellfish stuck to the stacks up close, which is something I’ve never had the pleasure of doing before. It was also super cool to walk through the passage ways between the stacks and even go through some tunnels. We could walk out so far and even get lost in the fog that morning, leading to some fun photo captures!
Later that night, Aimee wanted to do some astrophotography, so we headed out around 11pm up to La Push on the Quilete Reservation to see how the light pollution was. First we stopped near the James Island View Point but there was a lot of lights from the marina and town there. Then we headed to Rialto Beach where it was significantly darker. After a few hours out in the cold night, we headed back south to Ruby Beach, where Aimee took a few more captures of the night sky. We finally got back around 3:30am and crashed hard after a long night! These four photos are courtesy of Aimee and I appreciate her letting me post them.
I slept in the next day and then we headed to the town of Forks, made famous by the Twilight Saga. We visited a bunch of the local shops, most of which carry indigenous and Twilight focused merchandise, and then we grabbed burgers at Sully’s Drive-In. We also stopped about the Forks Timber Museum on the way out of town. The Chamber of Commerce is right next door and displays the famous red trucks that Bella drove in the Twilight movies.
Another must-see spot to stop at is Kalaloch Beach, where you can find the historic lodge, campgrounds, and beach access. The name Kalaloch (pronounced klay-laak) is a corruption of the Quinault term k'–E–le–ok (pronounced Kq–â-lā'–ȯk) meaning "a good place to land." The main reason to visit Kalaloch is to see the famous Tree of Life (aka The Root Cave), which surprisingly still hangs between the eroding cliffs despite its fully exposed root system. Luckily the site wasn’t overrun by tourists when we arrived, so we only had to wait 5 minutes before having our own uninterrupted photoshoot posing with the tree and inside the root cave. I really hope to make it back to Kalaloch this year to see the tree again as predications are that this massive Sitka spruce might be on its last years as it’s becoming more and more unstable.
On our last day together, we got up early and headed to Lake Crescent, a mountainous glacier-carved lake about 20 minutes west of Port Angeles. I have loved this stunning lake since I first saw it in 2016 and was happy to check it again with friends. There was smoke in the air from the fires burning in Canada and Eastern Washington, adding an eerie backdrop to the otherwise incredible view. The plan was to paddleboard the lake, but it was super windy and cold that day leading us to the decision that it would be exhausting to go against the strong current and waves. We decided to go into the cold water and swim for awhile instead, which was amusing to us as no one else dared to go in. Before saying our goodbyes, I walked Maverick along the beach front for a bit, and then packed up to head home. Aimee and Julie went back south to the campground for another night before heading home to the Olympia area where they reside.
The last part of this trip for me was taking the Port Townsend-Coupeville ferry for the first time. Maverick was quite the hit on the ferry ride as I don’t think many people see an adventure cat on their travels. Stay tuned for more adventures coming soon!
