Thursday:
After looking up some routes and ideas, I headed towards the Olympic Peninsula in the morning. I drove through Olympia to get an oil change (boooooring, but they vacuumed my car for free so that’s nice!) and stocked up on some food. I haven’t had to stock up on food very much, actually. I have a huge bucket for whatever food things I want and also a snack bag that is a little more accessible to the driver… But anyway, I stocked up and headed towards Kalaloch in Olympic National Park. I stopped in Queets to see the World’s Largest Sitka Spruce. And it was a BIG tree! Very cool to see. I can’t even imagine what the Redwoods and Sequoias are going to be like.
Kalaloch was an alright campground, it was really nice to be on the beach and it was a great site tucked into the woods, which was cool. But very popular with RVs. So, I made myself a hot dinner, watched a fantastic sunset and headed to bed.

Friday:
I had a delicious coffee/hot chocolate mix to start my day and headed straight towards Ruby Beach. This place was SO neat, it had huge trees that were driftwood piled on top of each other all over the place. You had to climb around on them and around them to get to the beach, which was like an adult jungle gym. Like the City Museum in St. Louis! It was very fun. The morning was SO beautiful, misty and blue-ish. Ruby Beach overlooks onto these very strange formations of islands that are almost perfectly round and still have huge trees on them. The main one that it looks onto is Abb(e)y Island, so that was fitting.
After collecting some rocks on Ruby Beach I started to climb over the logs towards the trail. I saw a familiar person and we couldn’t quite place each other but then realized we were friends from the vineyard up on Lopez Island! They had taken a different route around the peninsula and were finishing up their trip. It was a very small world to run into each other, especially on that trail, on that specific morning.
I drove to the Hoh Rainforest after Ruby Beach and got a campsite. When looking for a campsite, I kind of just choose randomly. So far, it’s been a pretty good method. I headed to the Visitor’s Center and started on the Hoh River Trail from there. After eating another peanut butter Sriracha sandwich. I’m getting tired of them. It pains me to say that out loud. But I am getting JUST A LITTLE tired of them.
The Hoh Rainforest deserves its own category. This place was lush and green and unlike anything I’ve ever smelled or seen. It had these THICK mosses hanging on tree branches and trees that towered over you. I felt like I was in a fairytale. I hear there are cougars in the rainforests up here, so that’s really crazy. And scary, but mostly just crazy. I hiked out to a little spot on the Hoh River and dipped my feet in. It’s a glacial river, so VERY cold.
After my hike, I knew I still wanted to go see Rialto Beach near La Push and through Forks. I know what you’re thinking. Yes, it IS indeed the same Forks, Washington from the Twilight series. It seems like Forks was really distancing themselves from the books but La Push had a huge sign out that said, “Vampires GO AWAY”, and many different Werewolf-y things. Haha. Anyway, it was absolutely stunning on the beach. Rialto Beach is one that should not be missed. It had huge round rocks and washed up trees, too. It feels so Pacific Northwest to have those bleached out trees on the beach.
Finally, I headed back to my campsite. As I pulled in, I saw a girl across the way camping by herself. I asked if she was indeed camping solo and she said YES! Then she invited me over for a glass of wine and to talk about why we were girls camping solo. Her name is Phoebe and she’s from Australia and just completed the entire Pacific Crest Trail. What! She’s a certified badass. It was so fun to hang out with someone and laugh, we got along really well. I told her my plans for the next few days and she asked if she could come along for part of it, she’s hitchhiking around because she can’t drive here. I of course said yes and we would meet in the morning to head out of town.